February 18, 2015

Learn the art of kirigami at Dept. of Making + Doing

Cut, fold and paste your way to a masterpiece

By Aubrey Nagle
PhillyVoice Contributor

Dept. of Making + Doing/DMDPhilly.org

Department of Making + Doing hosts a kirigami lesson.

Want to learn a new kind of craft? Head to a class on kirigami, the art of turning a 2-D sheet into a 3-D structure through cutting, rejoining and folding paper. The Department of Making + Doing, which calls kirigami "the cooler, lazier cousin of origami," will host those eager to learn during a session Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Rather than focusing on the highly intricate folding techniques origami uses, kirigami allows the artist way more flexibility to create 3-D shapes. Students will learn the theory behind kirigami, see examples of the art in action and make their own structures.

The class is taught by Toen Castle, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Castle contributed to a Penn study of kirigami where the team created rules for the art - like using a lattice of hexagonal shapes and the patterns in which to fold them - to be used across many different materials. Since the proportions of the folds remain the same, three-dimensional shapes can be scaled up or down from kirigami models into applications for everything from nanotechnology to architecture.

The Department of Making + Doing is a collaboration between local organizations STEAM Initiatives, NextFab, The Hacktory and Public Workshop. The group hosts public events that encourage people of all ages to learn new things and engage with the creative community. Check out more upcoming DM+D events here.