Eric Demaine is one of the better intersections of origami and mathematics, you should also read up on Dr Robert Lang, the OG and perhaps the most famous American JPL-physicist-turned-origamist: https://langorigami.com/
On the flip side the late Eric Joisel created perhaps the most amazing curved-crease and natural folding that we’ll ever see, his works were truly amazing art: https://ericjoisel.fr/en/home/
jmspring · 2h ago
Looking at Lang's site, yes it is a super niche area, but there is a lot of self promotion - books, events, etc. I was first introduced to the general area of curved crease, etc was with David Huffman in the early 90s. He started that work in the early 70s. So, Lang proclaims to the the first, but salesmanship is important.
Curved creases aside, the fact that folding a piece of paper gives you a straight line is itself quite amazing and deep.
Even if I couldn't trust a cheap ruler, a straight edge is a piece of paper away.
ndileas · 41m ago
One of the underappreciated causes and effects of the industrial revolution is the precision that's around us all the time. To make that piece of paper required thousands of precision surfaces, rollers, etc.
I bought Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet to Form by Paul Jackson on a whim several years ago and found it fun to work through. I think he has a new edition and some other books but I don't have any experience with them.
Which comes as a kit you put together (keep som clear packing tape handy... it can crack if folded to hard... lol)
boulos · 2h ago
For folks interested in folding and origami, the documentary Between the Folds was excellent. I don't know if anyone recorded a Q&A when it did the film festival circuit, but if you could find one, it'd be worth watching.
esafak · 7h ago
This duo must have the most fun job in all academia.
TheCoreh · 4h ago
These remind me of the Elliptic Curve pieces from another post on the HN front page right now (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44315321) I wonder if the poster was inspired by that one to also post these here?
Anyway, these are pretty cool/unique looking! I hadn't seen curved origami like this before.
wonger_ · 2h ago
Actually I was just pruning old bookmarks, and thought people would find this origami interesting. I hadn't seen the elliptic curves post -- thanks!
talkingtab · 3h ago
The force from curved folds can be used in other ways. If you score a sheet of copper in a curved line, then fold it along the score you get a twisted form. If you have some poster board handy you can use the same technique as well. Vessels!
kazinator · 4h ago
> There is a surprisingly old history to curved-crease sculpture, going back to the 1920s at the Bauhaus.
On the flip side the late Eric Joisel created perhaps the most amazing curved-crease and natural folding that we’ll ever see, his works were truly amazing art: https://ericjoisel.fr/en/home/
Eric himself reconstructs some of huffman's work - https://erikdemaine.org/papers/Huffman_Origami5/paper.pdf
It's an interesting area.
Even if I couldn't trust a cheap ruler, a straight edge is a piece of paper away.
It looks like there's a more recent series as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-cftqTcdI
https://www.leklint.com/collections/pendants/products/le-kli...
https://www.ikea.com/ma/en/p/krusning-pendant-lamp-shade-whi...
https://www.leklint.com/blogs/stories/3daysofdesign-2025
An old promo showing some of the techniques they use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3T_il3Qphc
I bought Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet to Form by Paul Jackson on a whim several years ago and found it fun to work through. I think he has a new edition and some other books but I don't have any experience with them.
Which comes as a kit you put together (keep som clear packing tape handy... it can crack if folded to hard... lol)
Anyway, these are pretty cool/unique looking! I hadn't seen curved origami like this before.
That's surprisingly recent.