cutting and folding, no glue

April 11, 2007 4:13 AM

Kirigami is an ingenius way of cutting and folding paper, creating designs in many styles, often with a captivating simplicity. Some are like geometric lace, some are marvelous 3-D modular, while some are amazing architectural creations.
posted by nickyskye (21 comments total)

very very neat.
posted by nihlton at 4:29 AM on April 11, 2007

Nice finds, nickyskye.

Just in case anyone's wondering, the name comes from the Japanese kiri, (cut or cutting) and kami (paper).
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:33 AM on April 11, 2007

I was fascinated by the description of how the 3-D modular kirigami was created. Cool.
posted by bobobox at 5:01 AM on April 11, 2007

Amazing stuff. I have had a Kirigami "How To" book on my shelf for a couple of years. Maybe it's time to give it a shot. Thanks for the inspiration.
posted by genefinder at 5:20 AM on April 11, 2007

and for the more despairing of us, there's always harikirigami

sorry, this is cool, but i couldn't resist
posted by pyramid termite at 6:11 AM on April 11, 2007

pyramid, that was some word-play after my own heart. I must tell you, though, that it's harakiri. "Hara" being Japanese for "belly". Fortunately, your mistake in no way diminishes the humor of your comment.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:20 AM on April 11, 2007

aaarrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!! ... plunk!!
posted by pyramid termite at 6:23 AM on April 11, 2007

This is really cool.
I wonder how many geometric axioms you can demonstrate just by cutting and folding a piece of paper... Like, as a really simple one, the ability to make two right isocoles triangles out of a square.
posted by klangklangston at 6:27 AM on April 11, 2007

I could never even get master an origami bird, now this!
posted by dcress at 7:00 AM on April 11, 2007

Cool! Never heard of it until now. Origami's the one with "folding" right?
posted by hadjiboy at 7:16 AM on April 11, 2007

hadjiboy, yup, spot on, origami's the folding one. Kirigami is cutting, usually with folding too. Just no glue.

klangklangston, cool idea. Bet there's some math brainiac on the web who's working on that.

pyramid termite, your wordplay gave me a twinkle. Death by abdominal papercut?

flapjax, thanx for the translation. :)
posted by nickyskye at 10:12 AM on April 11, 2007

hadjiboy, yup, spot on, origami's the folding one. Kirigami is cutting, usually with folding too. Just no glue.

klangklangston, cool idea. Bet there's some math brainiac on the web who's working on that.

pyramid termite, your wordplay gave me a twinkle. Death by abdominal papercut?

flapjax, thanx for the translation. :)
posted by nickyskye at 10:12 AM on April 11, 2007

oh shoot, sorry for the double, any chance to delete one?
posted by nickyskye at 10:21 AM on April 11, 2007

Wow, very neat... Looks like fun, too...

*needs to get motivated to start crafting again*
posted by amyms at 2:35 PM on April 11, 2007

and for the more despairing of us, there's always harikirigami

Death by a thousand cuts folds.
posted by zippy at 2:47 PM on April 11, 2007

No, zippy. You haven't been paying attention! "hara" = belly, as in "harakiri" (literally, belly splitting). "kiri" = cut/cutting. "gami" = "kami" = paper. "harakirigami", then, as a word, contains no direct reference to folding. Let's be precise!

Precision is big in Japan.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:31 PM on April 11, 2007

Is ingenius the american spelling of nongenius?

Following on from your floating world post the other day, nickyskye, I'd resolved to find & post some stuff about a Japanese artist who uses paper-cutting techniques to produce some pretty amazing modern versions of traditional Japanese illustration. I've got a Tale of Genji & Love Songs from the Manyoshu illustrated by him.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:10 PM on April 11, 2007

Hey, that's wonderful- the "geometric lace" artwork linked above was created by my wife! Thanks for the link!

This actually prompted me to pay up and create a Metafilter account, after several years of lurking.

I should also mention that artist Jeff Rutzky is publishing a book on Kirigami this year, from Barnes and Noble, Inc. Here's some of the pieces: Flickr Kirigami set

some of my wife's kirigami designs are featured in the book- we're really looking forward to seeing them published. Likewise, work from George Hart and Ingrid Siliakus will be featured, if I'm not mistaken, and many other wonderful kirigami artists.
posted by EricGjerde at 6:04 AM on April 12, 2007

oh drat UbuRoivas, misspelling ingenious without the o is just pathetic, lol! The sad thing is that's how I actually thought it was spelled. Humbling. The "american spelling". You're naughty.

Your link to that Japanese artist, Masayuki Miyata, is wonderful! So make a post about him. :)

And EricGjerde, Welcome to Metafilter! Nice to see you here. Your wife's kirkigami work is really beautiful! It's the kind of art that makes me feel happy. The photos are great. I like her other work too but my fave on that page is the photo of, Lily, the cat rug.

George Hart's modular kirigami is fabulous. Ingrid Siliakus' work is stunning. wow. Glad you added their names to this thread.
posted by nickyskye at 8:24 AM on April 12, 2007

yay! nickyskye brings another sinner in from the cold. welcome, EricGjerde, and much kudos to your wife for her beautiful art!

As for Masayuki Miyata, I'll get onto it. Slight problem with these Japanese websites is navigation when links are largely in Japanese, but this is one in which you can just go happily random on the "art work" links in the left frame.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:56 PM on April 12, 2007

*kirkigami is the obscure East German art of folding churches. Obviously your wife doesn't do that (unless it's something I don't know about), since she's not Prussian. I meant to compliment her on her kirigami.
posted by nickyskye at 4:58 AM on April 13, 2007