Fabric Origami: Iso Area Origami Flasher Made with Fabric

Inspired by origami masters and the beauty of geometric designs, my mom ditched traditional paper origami and took the art to her native medium: fabric. A professional in the sewing industry, she was not daunted by the challenge of origami fabric folding.

And she succeeded: above you can see the iso area origami flasher she made. It starts at just two or three inches in diameter and expands to about twelve inches on each side. When released, the origami flasher springs back to the small, folded position.

Iso area patterns are complex and making an origami flasher with fabric brings its own challenges: the fabric must be sturdy, and you must find a way to make it maintain a fold. Ironing and starching would require a tiny iron, incredible precision, and wouldn't be permanent; sewing small fabric strips together would be tedious and error-prone considering the dozens of tiny seams involved and the varied folds they must make.

To overcome these difficulties, my mom used a technique called "pin-tucking" that uses a double needle and mismatched upper and lower thread tension to create a natural fold wherever the needle lays a path. If you have the equipment and skills, origami fabric folding using pin-tucking will serve you well.

She used a stiff cotton organdy to make the iso area design. This fabric is commonly used to make a traditional Dutch hat costume, and it seems to work well for origami fabric folding when using pin-tucking.

This iso area pattern is very close, if not identical, to a pattern called an "Iso Area Flasher," designed jointly by origami artists Chris Palmer and Jeremy Shafer. The pattern itself made its way into my mom's shop on a piece of printed paper via a talk she heard by American physicist and renowned origami artist Robert Lang.

The origami flasher pattern's name comes from its ability to "flash" from an extremely compact folded state to a large size, and is based on the work of Japanese origami artist and theorist Toshikazu Kawasaki's iso-area fold patterns. "Iso area" refers to "iso area symmetry": symmetry that is rotationally inverse and where folds are in alternating directions.

Did you like hearing about this origami flasher project? If so, let me know!

BakerGal

Chocolate Crepes Cake Recipe with Hazelnuts

A that cake can be made with just crepes, hazelnut filling, and chocolate glaze?

The latest treat I've put together in the kitchen is a chocolate crepes cake with hazelnuts. I decided to make it after seeing a similar dark chocolate crepes cake decorated in hazelnuts in a Martha Stewart magazine.

The chocolate crepes cake recipe requires alternating layers of crepes and chocolate-hazelnut-whipped cream mixture. While Martha Stewart's plans called for chocolate crepes and white hazelnut filling, I didn't have the time or patience to make the chocolate crepes required for my three cakes. I used store-bought plain crepes instead. I still wanted to maintain the alternating dark and light crepes cake layers that I found so engaging in Martha Stewart's chocolate crepes cake, though, so I whipped up a dark chocolate hazelnut filling of my own to contrast with the white crepes.

It's worth noting that I made the cake a second time at a later date, and I *did* use homemade plain crepes that time. I found that, because it's hard to make paper-thin homemade crepes, I needed far fewer to build a cake of the same height. Great results both times! The recipe is below.

Chocolate Crepes Cake Recipe with Hazelnuts: