Digitprop – Papercraft and Stuff

I admit this is “somewhat” kitschy, but it can still make for a nice little gift for children, if you want to give them a set of pencils or felt-tip pens (kids love kitsch). It’s a peacock pen-holder:

In case you wonder what the golden scribbles mean, and if they maybe are the next Voynich manuscript, I have to disappoint you: They are just that – decorative scribbles.

Now, making this model is a bit complicated, so I decided to make a small photo tutorial. The model consists of two pages. Page 1 contains the body, page 2 contains the peacock’s fan.

Start with the body. Score and cut out all three parts:

The larget part forms the body and neck. Glue the sides to the base, in order to get a ‘boat-like’ structure. Do not glue the remaining sides yet:

Glue the head, including the yellow beak. The head is small and detailed, so take time and be careful.

Now insert the back side of the neck and the top of the body into the previously made ‘boat’, and carefully glue the neck and head to the body:

After that, you are almost done with the body.

Now, very importantly, I suggest adding small weights to the base. Just glue one or two small coins inside, close to where the neck begins. Otherwise, the weight of the pencils being at the back end of the model, the peacock will be prone to tipping over.

Glue the remaining flaps and get something like this:

Now it’s time to start working on the fan: Cut out the holes in the strip, then glue it to the main ‘taco-shaped’ part, but leave one side open:

We have to insert separator tabs, so that the pencils stay in their intended positions. Otherwise they will stick out at arbitrary angles and don’t form a nice fan. Thus, glue the tabs radially into the base:

This doesn’t have to be 100% accurate and symmetrical. The important thing is to provide some guidance for the pencils and keep them separated. Now glue the base of the fan shut, and attach it to the body:

Congratulations – you are done. Just add six pencils, and there you have your red-golden peacock. You will notice that adding just one pencil in the leftmost or rightmost position will make the model fall over, so add them symmetrically.

This is also a caveat: As nice as the peacock is, it’s probably not the most usable pen holder for daily use. Consider it more as a decorative accessory or for presenting a gift (and don’t sue me if after your hard work on building the peacock, it doesn’t hold up to your heavy duty office demands).

Here is the template:

• Page 1
• Page 2

I noticed that the papercraft alphabet created some interest among people who are not (yet) experienced in papercrafting. Therefore, some letters turned out to be a bit too difficult for some, which prompted me to write this little tutorial. The idea is to give you pointers as to where to start.

For the tutorial, I have chosen the ‘R’, as it is one of the more difficult letters due to the curved shape and the inner hole. Print the PDF template onto a sheet of paper or – preferably – cardstock. I use 190g/sqm (about 53 lb) cardstock. Please notice that the strength of the paper should match the size of the model. The letters are about 6cm (2.4 in) high, so 190g / 53 lb is already a bit on the heavy side. For larger models, the paper should be even stronger.

You can print with any printer. Using a laser printer leads to color that is less prone to smearing when getting into contact with glue or water, but inkjet printers usually have nicer colors and gradients.

Originally I said that the first step after printing is to cut out all parts. However, Carol rightfully pointed out in the comments that it might be easier to first score the pieces in the uncut template, and then cut them out. In this way, it is easier to align the scoring tool.

This can be done with a pair of scissors, but for details and holes it is useful to use an Xacto knife or similar sharp, pointed tool. However, please be careful with these: They are much more dangerous than scissors and shouldn’t be given to children.

the next step is to score along the dotted lines, so that the paper doesn’t break when you fold it. This can be done with any object that is pointed but not too sharp. the tip of scissors works reasonably well. In order to score precisely, it’s a good idea to align the tool with a ruler along the straight edges (except for curved parts, of course, where you and your steady hand are on your own):

There is also a dedicated tool for this job, called a bone folder (although these days it’s made from plastics). This is not really required, but if you want to do a lot of papercrafting, it can be a good investment (and it’s really unexpensive). It can be bought in all reasonably well-assorted crafting stores.

Carol suggests to use a knitting needle, which – if you have access to one, which I don’t – might in fact be even better suited – excellent suggestion, Carol!

The next step is to fold everything along the dotted lines. There are mountain folds and valley folds. They are not specifically indicated, but it’s usually easy to determine which is which by looking at how the parts fit together.

With most letters, you have the two faces and a strip that forms the edge. The ‘R’ is no difference – except that it has two strips, one for the hole and one for the outer edge. If you look at how the edge strip aligns with the faces, it is easy to figure out which folds are mountain folds and which are valley folds.

However, even if you make a mistake and fold into the wrong direction, this can be rectified later – once the paper has been folded in one direction, it easily folds back into the other direction as well.

Now it’s time to glue the parts together. For the ‘R’, we start with glueing the inner edge into a circular shape. Make sure that the printed side faces inwards. Then, apply glue to the flaps on one side only:

By the way, speaking of glue: The type of glue doesn’t really matter, you can use any glue suitable for paper. I personally use white ‘crafting’ glue which dries quickly, but not too quickly to realign parts, and is not too runny. It becomes transparent when fully dried, so small smudges aren’t that tragic. However, the paper gets dirty very quickly when covered in glue, and the glue tends to solubilize the printer color (for inkjet dyes at least) – so be carefuly and keep your hands as clean as possible. Perfectionists don’t apply the glue directly out of the dispenser, but with toothpicks.

Glue the part to one of the faces, and make sure that it aligns nicely with the edge of the face:

Now, apply glue to the flaps on one side of the outer strip, and section by section, glue it to the same face. You will end up with this:

You may notice that the whole shape bends slightly, due to the uneven stress on the paper. This will be corrected by the next step: Simply apply glue to all remaining flaps, place the other face onto them and pull and push everything into shape.

That’s it. The whole process is actually not difficult, but takes some time getting used to it. The most important ‘trick’ is to be patient: Apply glue to one section / flap at a time, hold it in place until the glue sticks, then move on to the next piece.

This is my take on the matryoshka theme: Six women from all walks of line, nested one inside the other:

Of course, from a practical point of view, these dolls are somewhat lacking. As opposed to the ‘real’ matryoshka dolls made of wood, the paper version is very fragile and a bit finnicky to open and close (or else, you have to be careful that they don’t fit too loosely and fall apart).

However, I still like how they look on my shelf, and it’s a compact format to take on a short trip if you want to have a surprise for the kids ( I guarantee it will distract them for at least 2 minutes…).

The largest one – the farmer – is inspired by the traditional Russian matryoshka dolls:

The next one is a hipster music aficionada:

Next comes the scientist…

… followed by her more practically inclined friend, the astronaut:

Then we have true royalty – the princess:

And – for contrast – probably the most famous icon of the working class, Rosie the Riveter:

Ok, now if you want to make these, the templates are available below. They are fairly easy to make, however, the templates are not entirely self-explanatory. There are six parts for each doll: The top and bottom, which are two circles with flaps at the edges; and two parts each for the upper and lower body.

Start with the upper and lower body and make two cylinders. Move all four parts over a cylindrical object such as a thick pen, to give the paper the right curvature:

Use the thicker blank strip and glue it to the inside of the lower body part. Make sure that it is offset against the left / right edge of the outer (colored) strip, so that both eventually form a stable cylinder:

The inner part should slightly protrude from the outer cylinder – this will go inside the upper body part when closing the doll. It does not align with the bottom but starts a few millimeters above the bottom. This will leave room for the flaps of the bottom circle.

For the upper part, do the same – glue the blank part into the printed part, forming another cylinder. 

Here, the inner part should leave some space both at the top (for the flaps) and at the bottom (to accept the protruding part of the lower body when closing the doll.

Now, the most difficult part is to get the two cylinders to fit nicely into each other without being too loose (otherwise the dolls will keep falling apart). This may take a bit of experimentation. I suggest you make the lower body cylinder first, then adjust the circumference of the upper body accordingly.

Once you have both cylinders, insert the bottom and top circles and glue them into the cylinders.

Here are the templates:

• The farmer
• The easy listener
• The scientist
• The astronaut
• The princess
• Rosie the Riveter

You may disagree with the order of the dolls. If you do – and want to change it – print the templates with different scaling. In that case, it is useful to know that each doll is 85% the size of the next larger one. So, if for example you want to switch places of the scientist and the astronaut, print the scientist at 85% of her original size and the astronaut at 117.6% (1/85%).

Einige wenige Landsleute haben es gefunden, das Papieralphabet, bei dem jeder Buchstabe gleichzeitig ein Ding, Tier oder eine Person ist, die mit diesem Buchstaben anfängt. Die wenigsten haben bemerkt, dass die Buchstaben auch auf Deutsch funktionieren – die Begriffe fangen im Deutschen wie im Englischen mit dem gleichen Buchstaben an.

Also, z.B. “Rainbow” – “Regenbogen” oder “Beaver” – “Bieber”. Probiert’s mal aus. Weil das offenbar einigen entgangen ist und sie gedacht haben, man könne das Alphabet nur einsetzen, wenn man des Englischen mächtig ist, hier nun der explizite Hinweis in Form dieses Posts: Hätte auch auf Deutsch funktioniert. Ich gebe zu, dadurch, dass der Hinweis im englischsprachigen Blog gut versteckt war, lag das Missverständnis nahe – dafür entschuldige ich mich, oder besser gesagt: Sorry! So, und jetzt viel Spaß mit dem Alphabet. Bei der Sommerhitze ist Basteln im Schatten genau das Richtige…

This is the official announcement for the papercraft alphabet I just finished uploading. That was quite some work, especially with two hyperactive kids climbing all over me while I am typing. By the way, if you speak German: Hätte auch auf Deutsch funktioniert.

Anyway, the alphabet is now complete – a collection of 26 papercraft templates for all letters 0f the alphabet, each representing an animal, thing, or people starting with that letter:

You will find the complete list of templates here. You can use them for education, as toys, or to spell out whatever message you want to get across. Here is a tutorial on how to make the letters.

Here is a ZIP file containing all templates as PDFs.

Have fun with these – and if you do, I wouldn’t mind if you help to spread the word…

Here it is – the last letter of the alphabet. Congratulations if you made all 26 letters!

You will find the other 25 letters of the papercraft alphabet here.

Here is the template as a PDF file.

This is basically the single one animal starting with the letter ‘Y’ both in English and German. If you have made all 24 letters coming before this one in the alphabet, you will be relieved to fnd that this one is very easy to make.

You will find the other 25 letters of the papercraft alphabet here.

Here is the template as a PDF file.

This is what it looks like when you x-ray a letter – you did know that they are made of flesh and bones, right?

You will find the other 25 letters of the papercraft alphabet here.

Here is the template as a PDF file.

Walrus are strange animals, when you look at them closely. Even more so when they are turned into the shape of the letter W.

You will find the other 25 letters of the papercraft alphabet here.

Here is the template as a PDF file.

Vampires seem to be quite en vogue these days. Well, I prefer the old-school ones over their ‘new millenium’ counterparts.

I was slightly tempted to include a bit of blood tripping from one of the canines, but then I didn’t want to have to explain to my five year old daughter about the staple diet of vampires.

You will find the other 25 letters of the papercraft alphabet here.

Here is the template as a PDF file.