Spiraling Paper Ornament

I came across this complicated looking but simple paper structure and have been happily playing around with it for days.

I’ve been able to locate only once source for these, which is at http://hattifant.com/triskele-paper-globes-flower-edition/, an exquisite site by German artist Manja Burton. Fact is, her site has enough about these globes that, really, no one else needs to ever write about them again ever, but, oh well, here I go.

Manja calls these Triskele Globes. I have no idea whether these are a traditional paper-folding design, or if she developed it herself. “Triskele” is a symbol which depicts three interlocking spirals. These paper globes appear to be interlocking spirals, but the spiraling is simply a wonderful illusion.

Bonus Update: just as I was about to hit the Publish button for this post, I received a note from Manja, responding to my questions about this structure.  I’ve added her response at the end of the post.

 

 

Three rectangles that will become globes

The globes are made with three interlocking strips. 

After interlocking the strips, the arcs are folded in. It really helps to pre-score the curved fold lines. Here’s a short video at https://youtu.be/m4W1hT1hnF4?si=UjOlnJvao3YQmeNo or click below. 

I made three different pdfs for paper strips, which will be at the bottom of this post. Each page will make two ornaments. My templates are a bit smaller than the ones on Manja Burton’s site. I like this smaller size mostly because I think it fits so well on standard copy paper.

I’ve embellished with the paper with simple shapes, so that it’s easier to distinguish the strips from each other, otherwise it can be confusing to see what’s going on with the construction. I’ve also provided a pdf below that has no embellishments, so my shapes won’t interfere with your own vision.

Image of template for paper strips to make spiral paper ornament. Look for PDF below

You’ll notice that there are triangles on the template. These triangles are hidden in the final product. I put them there to help orient the designs, hopefully making it easier to see how the rings of paper strips are aligned to each other.

If you don’t have access to a copy machine, it’s absolutely possible to construct your own template for these paper strips. Here’s a grid that can be used to understand the proportions of the shapes.

The paper strips for the Spiraling ornament, mapped on a grid. The strips are 48 squares tall (plus two more for the tab), 10 square wide, and the circles have an a radius of 8 squares, but only 1/3 of the circle is on the paper strip. There, that should get you started.

I liked the look of the grid so much that I made a PDF of templates that includes the grid.

See PDF for this at the bottom of this post

I’ve had such a great time with these. I’m  surprised every time I see the transformation happen as the strips of paper become a spiraling globe.

Here are the PDF’s of the strips.

Spiral Paper Ornament strips with shapes

Spiral Paper Ornament strips plain

Spiral Paper Ornament graphed strips

and here the PDF of the grid so you can construct your own strips without a copy machine:

Spiral Paper Ornament strip construction  (will be much  easier to use if you have graph paper)

A Bevy of Paper globes

Have fun. Use bling. Be colorful. Experiment with different papers, different designs. Make them into dice, fortune tellers, add quotes. Go wild.

Here’s the bonus update: I wrote a note to Manja which said.

Manja, I am enchanted by the Triskele balls, and am currently writing a blog post about them, which will include links to your site. Can you tell me something about history of these balls? did you invent the form or did you come across it in your travels? Many thanks for your beautiful work.

 

She wrote back, saying:

 

It is a couple of years back now that I saw an image of one of these globes and all I knew was that it was made out of three strips of paper. I spent a whole day on figuring out how it works… I never found that picture again online. I did do some more research on it back then and couldn’t find anything. So I asked the Hattifant community to help me find a name. And that was absolute fun and we in the end came up with Triskele Paper Globes.  Today, I have seen more of them and also in the Scandinavian area… there they seem to be called “click balls”. So please I would love to know more, too!  If you find out more do let me know!”

Okay! If anyone knows something about the history of these balls, let us know!

 

 

 

Addendum, December 18.2018

After reading my post about these ornaments a twitter friend examined the curves and came up with some tweeks https://twitter.com/mathforge/status/934826360970924033

Then this friend, who I know only by the name Loop Space wrote a great post for the mathematically curious which is https://loopspace.mathforge.org/CountingOnMyFingers/Triskele/. I especially like how   Loop Space illustrated the explanation.