papermat

Folding a Giant Origami Bear

Folding a Giant Origami Bear

It took a team of four people seven hours to fold this giant, life-size origami bear.

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Paper Plate Mandala

Paper Plate Mandala

As a young sculptor fresh from art school, Wendy Brackman struggled with the problem of “selling out.” In the video, above, she talks about her decision to become a party entertainer. Her act involves spontaneous sculpture of weird party hats cut by hand, from paper plates, using scissors, and joined together with staples. That was it. In need of a broader color palette, she began painting the plates with acrylic house paint before cutting them up, and as her act developed and began to take off, eventually graduated to custom-printed and die-cut cardstock blanks, instead of plates. Eventually…

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Make a Kusudama Origami Ball

Make a Kusudama Origami Ball

When she’s not busy helping her kids become the architects of tomorrow, Julie Hudy honchos our Maker Mom program. And when she’s not busy with all of that, she makes these amazing origami constructions.

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Making Paper Bricks in India

Making Paper Bricks in India

At MAKE we have covered a type of paper brick before, but it was used simply as a fire starter. Professors Rahul Ralegaonkar and Sachin Mandavgane of the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in India (VNIT) have come up with a process to make paper bricks designed for creation instead of destruction.

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Paper-Based 3D Printing Process

Paper-Based 3D Printing Process

Phil mentioned Ireland’s Mcor Technologies when they premiered on Gizmodo back in 2008. Their monochrome Matrix 300+ printer builds models by laminating regular copy/printer paper using controlled application of adhesive and 2D-mechanical cutting on each layer. Now, Mcor is at work on Iris, a prototype design that implements a full-color version of their process, presumably adding a color printing step, of some sort, on each sheet of paper. Check the video below to see some early results.

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Ask MAKE: What Makes Paper Archival?

Ask MAKE: What Makes Paper Archival?

A user asks what the difference is between normal and archival paper.

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How-To: Paper Micarta

How-To: Paper Micarta

Micarta is a genericized trademark referring to a composite material made from layers of paper or fabric impregnated with thermosetting resin. It is rigid, tough, and electrically insulating, and has many applications ranging from power distribution equipment to countertops. It is also commonly used in knife, gun, and tool handles, where its laminated construction offers decorative effects ranging from subtle wood-grain-like patterns to out-and-out gaudy riots of color.

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