Business card origami

Models folded and photographed by Michał Kosmulski. Modules designed by their respective authors.
Click on images to enlarge them. Links in image titles lead to pages with more information about each particular object.

Image thumbnails on this page and the full-size images they link to are licensed under a Creative Commons License (Free for non-commercial use with attribution; Ask me about other uses).

Introduction

On this page are collected images of modular origami models made of business cards. They are all grouped together while "regular" modular models made out of square pieces of paper are put on separate pages depending on the subject. This is because business card origami has some peculiarities and through the choice of material is even more different from traditional origami than standard modular origami. Business card units are designed differently than modules for regular paper: due to cardboard's greater stiffness, these units usually have far fewer creases (even as few as two) and rely to greater extent on the paper's rigidity. Still, for business card models, I follow the same guidelines as for my other origami, i.e. cutting or glueing are not allowed.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the people, who donated their business cards for the noble purpose of origami. Special thanks go to (in alphabetical order): Katarzyna Dobrowolska and my colleagues from NetSprint.pl.

Images

Cube Made from Business card cube module (12 modules: 6 for the body and 6 for coating). Public transport tickets were used for the units.

Menger Sponge (level 1) Made from Business card cube module (120 modules).

Menger Sponge (level 1) Made from Business card cube module (192 modules: 120 for the body and 72 for coating). Public transport tickets were used for the units. [ 3D image ]

Pyramid (6 levels high) Made from Business card cube module (612 modules). This model consists of just a 2-cube thick hull of a pyramid. This makes it possible to create a larger model with fewer modules than in the case of a completely solid model. As one can easily show, the general formula for the number of cubes in n-th level (with a single cube being level 0) is: N(n) = 8n-4 for n >= 2 (5 and 1 for n 1 and 0, respectively). Thus, the number of cubes in the whole pyramid hull of height m (when a single cube counts as a pyramid of height 1) is, for m>=2: 1+5+Σm-1i = 2(8i-4) = 6 + 4(m-1)2-4 = 4(m-1)2 + 2

Octahedron (5 levels) Made from Business card cube module (624 modules). Just like the pyramid, this is a shell with an empty inside.

	Small table Made from Business card cube module (702 modules). A Japanese style short-legged table.

Meshed pyramid (8 levels high) Made from Business card cube module (708 modules). While it may not be obvious at first, this model has some features which make it strikingly similar to the table model shown above.

	Life-sized chair Made from Business card cube module (828 modules). This model is the size of a real chair. Unfortunately it can't support enough weight to be sat in.