Millipede Formwork

Recently, my collaborators, Keqi and Nishtha, as well as myself, began creating our first test models of our millipede-like form. To create a form that resembles a millipede or another type of creepy crawly we have explored many methods of manufacture.

After thinking very carefully about the aesthetic of our product, we have decided to explore using paper. We think that paper helps to diffuse light nicely. Light that passes through paper can create a pleasing glow, as seen in the work of Isamu Noguchi. I also think that there is a lot of possibility to create a good form for the main structure of the wearable using origami or a similar technique.

For our first model we stapled pieces of white card together top create the form below. While this was relatively successful there was a lot of gaps in this design which we felt were very aggressive and just left the whole piece feeling too open.

As a group we then looked at some guides to making different origami creatures, most notably caterpillars. By following these guides online we were able to create much more complicated forms, and we also made the decision to switch from the white card to recycled cartridge paper as it is much thinner and therefore it was easier to get the cleanest folds possible.

We still had a lot of problems with the design above, particularly as it did not bend in the way we hoped it would. We decided to make some small cuts into the shell in the hopes that it would allow the shell to be opened up more, however this was still unsuccessful.

After picking each other's brains for some time we realised that we had created only the bottom half of the piece and this was what was preventing our piece from having some more curved formwork.

Above is the final millipede shell that we managed to create, while very angular still, we felt that it still fit the design language we wanted express and fit the origami aesthetic.