A Common Source of Inspiration

Again, this model was created years ago. I have not folded it for an equally long time, yet I have not forgotten one bit of the instructions. You will find out why soon enough...

I had been playing with a piece of paper in my mind while in the washroom, when I discovered a folding sequence that would give me some sort of module that if 4 of them were pieced together would form a box.

Eagerly, I tried it out on a real piece of scrap paper and it worked out really well. That was years ago, yet now, I folded it again without a single mistake, due to the fact that it had only 5 steps.
Even so, doing the diagram would be tedious, and I doubt anyone would fail to recreate the box perfectly from a CP with enough practice and patience.

So, here it is:



A Modular Box made of 4 Modules. A glance at the module CP then...



I told you it was easy.

The module will come out like this:



For assembling modular origami, 2 things you need to take note of are where the pockets are and which flaps to stick into which pockets. In some models the flaps and pockets are rather obvious, which may not be the case for this model, but I encourage folders to try this out (especially as it is just as easy as it looks) and find out for themselves the flap/pocket combos.

The more inquisitive folders will ask with a furrowed brow: "What if I want to make the box higher? It looks so flat... can I edit the CP such that I can get a cubic box, or even a tall, long one?"
The answer: look at the bottom section of the CP. The 2 squares you see there are the only parts of the CP that cannot be edited. The top half can be lengthened as you like, so long as in the folding process it is folded in half like the CP to lock the "walls" together. In fact, I once made a cubic box using black and gold paper with the dimensions 1:1.5, made a matching lid (using slightly larger paper and folding a flatter box) and my mother was so ecstatic about it that she used it to contain a present that she gave an exchange student staying at our house. It's rather a pity that I don't have it with me now...

Well, there can be several variations to this simple box, and if you have any interesting ideas please contact me or leave a comment!

Lastly, I had made a curious observation about the box: It appears that there is a secret "pocket" hidden between the 2 layers that make up the lid or base of the box.


Origami as Pure as Snow
shonen