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Here's a quick (faster than light!) model for members to download for free at the usual link. This flying saucer isn't animated but does look cool next to your computer screen. It might even ward off invading aliens! Have fun :-)
Print out the parts (either colour on mono) onto thin card (230 micron / 230 gsm) Score along the dotted and dashed lines then carefully cut out the pieces. Dotted lines are valley folds, dashed lines are hill folds, grey areas show where to glue.
Fold up and glue together the dome making sure that all the edges are lined up accurately.
I tried a couple of different ways of gluing the two sections of the saucer together. This technique seemed to work best.
Fold the tabs inward on the top and bottom of the saucer pieces.
Apply a thin layer of glue to all the tabs on both the top and bottom. With the two sections flat on the work-surface, join the two halves together to that the tabs are interleaved. Keep the edges lines up as accurately as possible.
Pull the two ends of the saucer together and glue them.
Fit the dome into place from the underside of the saucer.
Glue the three legs to the grey areas.
Glue the feet to the legs.
Engage! Make it so! Etc.
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If you are a member, you can download and make the sleeve to hold your shiny new pendulum zine
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Pendulum power brings a whole new dimension to your paper animations. Touch a pendulum powered model and it comes to life, legs swing, feet tap, heads nod, even after you stop moving the model.
This member's only zine gives the low-down on using pendulums in your paper animations. Like the Lever Zine and Cam Zine before it I have twenty (Only 2 left!) signed and numbered zines printed out ready for the first donations of at least £2 / $3 - visit the donations page here and leave your details if you'd like one!
As a member you can download the file at the link above and print it out onto standard 80g printer paper. Make sure that you set the printer to 'Scale to Fit' so that it fits the whole thing onto the page.
Cut out the page along the thin black line.
Fold the sheet in half running your finger along the fold to make a crisp crease.
Open the page out then fold the two short sides into the middle.
Open up the page then fold the sheet in half long ways.
Open up the paper then use your sharp knife to cut along the fine black line in the middle of the page.
Fold up the sheet in the cross shape shown above.
Then fold it flat to complete the zine.
Da nah!
With the page un-folded the sheet should look like this. Solid lines are cut line, dotted lines are valley folds and dashed lines are hill folds.
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I designed a couple of sleeves for the cam-zine and lever-zine limited editions using a mix of illustrator and photoshop. If you are a member you can download and print out your own sleeves at the link above.
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Christmas is approaching fast and I've been making some decorations for the house. I thought you might like to share these holly leaf decorations which I've made from laminated card. If you are a member you can download the parts at the link at the top of the page. Print out the two pages onto thin card (230 micron / 230 gsm)
Leaves that fall from the tree aren't completely flat. To bring these paper leaves to life they need that same curved quality as the real thing. Time for a bit of laminating. The process of laminating is a way of building up a curved surface from thin flexible sheets. It is most commonly used in wood to build, for example, interesting and complex furniture but works equally well with paper and card.
In the sketch above you can see how lamination works. Glue together two layers then try to curve them and they peel apart and distort(left). By building up the layers with the glue still wet and repositionable the curve can be built into the shape. Notice that the right hand ends of the laminated piece are no longer aligned. When you are laminating you need to allow an extra bit of waste material that you can trim off later. Once the glue between the laminations is dry the curve is a permanent part of the finished form.
On to the holly leaf project. Score down the middle of the tops of the leaves.
Cut out the leaf tops leaving a white border all the way round as shown above. this border allows for the misalignments caused by the lamination to be trimmed off later.
Cut out the back piece - no border this time.
Cover the reverese of the front leaf with a thin layer of glue.
Press the front and back together. Make sure that the centre crease along the length of the leaf is in place. While the glue is still moveable gently curve the leaf points alternately up and down. This is the lamination process.
Once the glue is dry these curves will be locked into the leaf. Once you are are happy with the profile of the leaf, put it to one side to dry completely.
Once dry, carefully cut off the white border.
Fold the brown stalk on the berry in half along its length. Join the two parts of the berry together and gently curve the card.
Tightly roll up the berry adding a dot of glue every so often.
Glue the end down to complete the berry.
Finish off the other three berries.
Complete the table decoration by trimming the stalks to length and gluing the parts together.
That was my 700th post! I hope you liked it! Ho ho ho.
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My second zine is done and ready to download for free at the link.
The instruction for construction are the same as for the Cam Zine. Blog post here and Video here.
While I am typing this I'm print out twenty copies as a special signed/numbered limited edition. If you would like to receive a copy simply make a donation of at least £2ukp / $3usd at the link above and let me know the address you'd like me to send it too. Hurry though, there are only 20 (All gone!) and the Cam Zines went fast!
This zine is on the subject of levers.
It is packed with all sorts of illustrations and facts belied by its compact size!
The finished zine should be like this where black lines are cut lines, dotted lines are valley folds and dashed lines are hill folds.
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As a special thank you to all the members of robives.com I'm delighted to present this free festive download.
This collapsible tree sits nicely on your desk or mantlepiece and folds flat for easy transportation. I hope that you enjoy the model and the season. Thanks again to all the members, I literally couldn't run this site without you!
Print the parts of the project onto thin card. (230 micron / 230 gsm) Score along the dotted lines then cut out the holes before carefully cutting out the pieces.
Fold up and glue together the base and sides of the box.
Glue the box inners into place lining them up with the hole in the side of the box.
Fold the top down and glue it into place making sure to glue the top tabs on the box inners as well.
The trunk sections are fitted with tabs which are zig-zagged to make double thicknesses of card. Some fold inwards, some outwards, use the dotted and dashed lines and the grey gluing areas to show you which goes where.
These double thickness tabs are glued to the inside of the trunk
Assemble the four trunk pieces.
Curve round and assemble the three branch cones.
Glue the trunk section labeled 'Top' to the inside of the top cone. Make sure that is it straight.
Fit the trunk sections 2 and 3 to their appropriate branch cone at the end opposite to the double thickness tabs.
Fit the last trunk section over trunk section 3. Make sure that the inner and outer double thickness tabs are on matching faces. These will stop the tree expanding too far.
Fit the other two cone sections into place in the same way.
Complete the tree by gluing it into place over the hole in the base.
Once the glue is completely dry you will be able to collapse the tree by pushing it down then restore it to ful height by blowing into the hole in the side of the box.
Festive felicitations!
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Surly Jack, impatience in paper form. Move the box, however slightly and the swinging pendulum causes Jack to tap his foot impatiently. Jack also comes with a two axis poseable head so you can make him scowl in any direction you like.
Members can download the parts for free at the link, thanks for subscribing! Non members can join in the fun for a nominal fee.
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| Pendulum Drive Tapping Foot | Poseable Head |
The kit comes in both mono and colour version. Print out your choice onto thin card (230 micron / 230 gsm) and let the ink dry completely before proceeding.
Score along the dotted and dashed lines and cut out the holes before carefully cutting out all the parts. There is a paper craft tutorial to help you here.
Fold up the tabs on the both box parts to make a right angled triangle tube.
Join the two box halves together. Don't glue down the base tabs yet.
Carefully roll up the two leg tubes and glue them down using the grey areas for alignment.
Thread the two legs up through the hole in the base and glue the tabs down. Use your sharp knife to cut away the arrowed tab piece from the hole.
Fold up and glue into place the box top stiffener using the faint grey lines on the box top for alignment.
Glue the box top into place.
Assemble the pendulum and glue on the hinge. Don't get glue on the joint as it will stop it swinging freely.
Glue the pendulum to the box top stiffener. The longer side hangs down. The shorter side needs to be under the rectangular hole. The pendulum lines up with the edge of the box stiffener arrowed.
Take four coins 25mm in diameter and approx seven grams each. I used UK 2p pieces. Wrap them in pairs tightly in an off-cut of card.
Glue the two weights to the front and back of the pendulum.
Complete the box by folding back and gluing the side tabs to make strong triangular tubes. Glue down the two base tabs. Hold the box on a flat surface as the glue dries to ensure correct alignment.
Assemble the foot as shown.
Gently curve the tongue round a pen or pencil then glue it to the front of the shoe.
Curve the two sides and glue them into place.
Fit the laces into the holes. Glue them only at the arrowed points so that the shoe isn't squashed down.
Fit the rand round the shoe.
In one shoe fit the shoe inner just slightly away from the hole.
Assemble the push rod and glue it to the shoe inner between the two short lines.
Drop the shoe into place over the right-hand leg. Before gluing find the best place for it to sit. The back of the shoe need to be as close to the leg as possible and the push rod should be centred in the rectangular hole. Once you have the location sorted, glue the tab at the back of the shoe down to the box.
Fit the other shoe into place. It only needs fastening at the back.
Thread the leg collars into place and glue them down with the black line at the back of the leg and the collar lined up where the grey meets the pink.
Roll up and glue together the two shorts legs...
...and glue the two tabs so that they are opposite each other.
Assemble the shoulders and glue them to the matching grey areas on the body. Let the glue dry completely.
Roll round the body and glue it down.
Fold up the neck support as shown.
Glue the neck support into the back of the body.
Apply a little glue to the two leg tabs. Push the legs right up into the body and glue the tabs to the inside of the body. I had roughly 30mm of shorts showing from below the body.
Roll up and glue the neck tube. Notice that it rolls round itself a couple of times to make double thickness card.
Glue one of the thinner rings to the grey area on the top of the neck.
Roll the wider ring round the neck and glue it to itself. If must be free to rotate round the neck so don't get any glue on the neck itself. Leave a small gap and glue the second fixed ring. This will hold the slip ring whilst still letting it rotate.
Glue the tabs to the slip ring.
Fold round and glue together the head inner and thread it over the tabs. Notice the folded section top and bottom. These give the head inner a little strength.
Glue the disks over the tab.
That fluffy thing in the background is Ruby the cat - sorry about that.
Fit the neck to the neck holder lining up the grey line with the top of the body arrowed.
Glue the hair parts together. There is a very small black line on the side hair piece that lines up with the end of the tabs on the hair centre, this should help you with alignment.
Complete the hair and curve the strands - because they're worth it.
Glue the nose in through the back of the head.
Roll round and glue the head together. Fit the hair into place using the tabs arrowed.
Fit the head to the head inner lining it up as shown above.
Fit the arms. You just need a small dot of glue in the centre to hold the arms into place.
Complete the model by fitting the legs to the leg collar - a pair of tweezers is useful at this point. Make sure everything is straight as you pinch the tabs into place.
That's it, tap the box and Surly Jack taps his foot.
What are you waiting for? Get on with it!
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For the third year in a row I forgot all about Movember until well into the month. Luckily we can all download and print out this fabulous Moustache Sheet for free!
Movember is an event where we all grow moustaches in November and raise money for prostate cancer research. Print them out for yourself or print out a scaled down version to use on pictures and photos.
You can make a donation when you download which I'll pass on to movember.com
Happy movember everyone!
Original post is here.
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A project for members to download and make. This character based project is a two axis neck joint. Use it to make this slightly disapproving paper character or as the starting point for your own designs.
Download the file from the usual place then print out the two pages onto thin card (230gsm / 230micron card) Score along the dotted lines and cut out the holes before carefully cutting out the pieces.
Start by rolling up the neck tube, curve the pieces over a pen or something similar. The tube rolls round on itself twice for extra thickness. Note that the area marked 'Inside ' is on, well, the inside.
Roll the tube round and glue the end down so that the end lines up with the edge of the grey area.
Starting at the top of the tube, glue one of the fixed ring strips, lining it up with the top of the tube and starting at the seam.
Roll it right round and carefully glue it down.
The second ring needs to be free to rotate. Roll it round and glue it down to itself, make sure that it doesn't stick to the neck.
Leaving two small gaps, fit the last of the fixed strips into place to the hold the rotating ring into position.
Crease and curve the tab piece as shown above
Glue the tab piece to the rotating ring. There will be a small gap between the two ends of the tab piece once it is glued down.
Make the head inner as shown.
Slot the tabs through the holes in the head inner. A coffee stirring stick is useful for poking at the tabs in this stage. Fold the tabs down and glue the circles into place. Make sure that the head inner is free to rock back and forth.
Assemble the head.
And glue on the nose.
Roll round and glue together the body.
Glue the neck support inside the the body so that it straddles the seam at the back of the body.
Glue the neck into the neck support.
Assemble the two shoulders as the one shown above.
Glue the shoulders to the grey areas on the body. The shorter side of the shoulders faces the front.
Glue the head to the head inner so that it is lined up front to back.
Complete the model by fitting the arms. The arms slip up inside the shoulders and fixed into place with a dot of glue on the front of the body.
Once complete, place your paper character somewhere where he can disapprove of whatever is going on.
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