Philip Chapman-Bell, an origami designer from western Massachusetts, has created a ‘Smart Waterbomb’, which he describes in this blog post. This model is made from a circular piece of paper and has only mountain and valley folds, some of which are curved. The model is economical in its folding, elegant and pleasing to make.
Besides Philip’s intended use of his model as a ‘waterbomb’, it occurred to me that there was another way to play with it that might keep us out of trouble with other people!
If we place the model on the tip of a skewer and blow on it, as my little friend Haley shows in the photo above, it becomes a delightful inflatable origami windmill!
Here is the video that Philip posted showing how to fold this model.
For additional suggestions on how to give volume to this model, click here.
Tips to make this windmill:
- To make a circle from a square piece of paper, fold a preliminary base (fig.1).
- Align a folded edge with the diagonal line (fig.2), but do not crease.
- Make a mark on the diagonal line at the point where the corner falls (fig.3).
- Cut a curved line from the bottom to the top corner, passing by the mark you created (fig.4).
- Unfold and you have a circle (fig.5). Turn all the folds already in the paper into mountains on the colored side of the paper.
- Use an inkless pen to score the curved folds, (valleys on the colored side, fig.6), then finish the model as shown in the video.
~Click on the image to view it larger.~
Depending on the quality of the paper used, you end up with slightly different shapes.
I taught this windmill at the recent origami convention in Argentina.
How was your experience folding this model?
Can you think of other ways to play with it?
In a coming post, I will share another fun way to mount this windmill to a skewer. Subscribe to this blog to receive coming posts via e-mail.
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Some ideas I came up with are – As flowers (if you keep them on skewers and put them in a vase with a few leafy shoots), as a ‘container’ for sweets (but you will have to open it up to eat the sweets ;) which makes it a sad thing to do), a Snowman’s hat? (something I thought of thinking of the upcoming holiday season).
Hi Ancella,
I love your ideas on how to use this model, specially using it as a container. I think that people could close and reshape it again after taking out the sweets.
Nice tutorial and thank you for sharing them, it will be great to teach this to children. Thank you
I’d like to see a video of a whole group people blowing on these colorful wind turbines.
Great idea! Too bad I didn’t take a video in Argentina. But I will take one the next time I teach this model to a group.
I can’t do it!!! I watched the video 17 times, yes I’m counting, and used 10 circles! I made really sharp folds, yet I can’t collapse it!
Hi Amy, Some times when you cannot fold an origami model, the best strategy is to wait for a few days, start over fresh and try again. You may have to try a few times, leaving a few days or even weeks between your trying. Keep on thinking that you will be able to do it, and eventually you will. Don’t give up!
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