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ldhenson - Brooklyn Bridge From a Single Piece of Paper.
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Brooklyn Bridge From a Single Piece of Paper.
A paper sculpture of the Brooklyn Bridge, cut and folded from a single piece of paper.


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I first came up with the idea for this one about a year ago and made some rough sketches of the layout, but didn't get a chance to refine and assemble it until now.





Built using my usual rules:

+ Designed so that it can be cut out in one continuous piece, then folded

+ No adhesives

+ Cutting and folding only (no coloring, drawn details, etc.)








Measures 12" long (making use of the full length of the original sheet) and 2 1/6" high. Cut from cardstock.








Designing and assembling this was very tricky as many of the pieces are small or thin, and from many angles there's no easy way to support this during assembly. Also, since this is all in one piece, any mistakes in cutting/folding would essentially mean I'd have to start from scratch again, and this is probably my most complex shape to date.

Despite all the careful planning, by the time I finished cutting it out I found at least three different areas of the design that didn't work as intended (i.e., they wouldn't fold and lock in a stable manner). Any fixes could only involve cutting away, not adding, more paper. So that took a bit of improvising to find new locking methods (and keeping my fingers crossed).

Fortunately it all came together well, with some patience. Better yet, I managed to come up with fixes that didn't change the look of the piece at all.








The final sculpture is pretty sturdy; you can see a stack of quarters balanced atop one of the towers in the last pic.

I'm very happy with it :-)


X-posted to my dA, craftgrrl (here), geekcrafts (here)

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Comments
plaguekitty From: plaguekitty Date: January 23rd, 2012 11:26 pm (UTC) (Link)
My word, this is incredible.

(Sorry for this random comment, I followed the link from craftgrrl and just forgot to tab back to comment. <3)

Edited at 2012-01-23 11:27 pm (UTC)
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 01:43 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thanks very much!

Don't worry about replying here; I usually link back to my LJ for more pics, so often that's where replies go anyway :-)
semielliptical From: semielliptical Date: January 23rd, 2012 11:55 pm (UTC) (Link)
Beautiful!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 01:43 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thank you!
genagirl From: genagirl Date: January 24th, 2012 12:15 am (UTC) (Link)
Wow! Your level of skill and determination is always amazing. If I attempted something like this it would end up a blood stained wad of paper.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 01:51 pm (UTC) (Link)
Aw thank you! Well, it did take me nearly a year to finish up :-) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit unnerved when I saw how complicated my drafts were getting. But I'm glad I stuck with it.
demon_666 From: demon_666 Date: January 24th, 2012 01:26 am (UTC) (Link)
Wow! The detective in me is trying to wrap my head around the design you may have used, but I feel like there's some sort of "wrinkle-in-time" magic going on here...
Well done!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:38 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thank you! I'm so glad I kept my draft sketch from last year because by now I've been away from this kind of crafting for so long, I'm not sure I could've come up with the design again.
hazeltea From: hazeltea Date: January 24th, 2012 01:49 am (UTC) (Link)
You continue to amaze me, my dear <3
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:39 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thanks for the kind words!
star_trackie From: star_trackie Date: January 24th, 2012 02:09 am (UTC) (Link)
You have mad talent. And patience!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:41 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thank you! Patience...and a hefty dose of "grrr I've already put so much work into it I can't give up now!"
re_vised From: re_vised Date: January 24th, 2012 02:31 am (UTC) (Link)
I love your posts! This is simply amazing.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:42 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thank you, glad you enjoyed my crafts!
bythedamned From: bythedamned Date: January 24th, 2012 03:48 am (UTC) (Link)
you are AMAZING
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:46 pm (UTC) (Link)
Aw thanks!

Nice icon :-) I did some SPN paper sculptures (and other crafts) too, if you click my "supernatural" tag.
juushika From: juushika Date: January 24th, 2012 05:08 am (UTC) (Link)
This is awesome, and browsing you craft tag was a fantastic blend of artsy meets geeky, and so I feel the need to follow you for future artsy/geeky glee. Your work is just fantastic.
juushika From: juushika Date: January 24th, 2012 05:12 am (UTC) (Link)
Apparently I say fantastic a lot, but my point still stands!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:56 pm (UTC) (Link)
<3
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:55 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thanks very much! Most of my crafting does come from geeky inspiration (even this one, which came about from a NYC-based fandom, though the final product isn't fandom-specific). It's so much fun to combine the two :-)

galwithglasses From: galwithglasses Date: January 24th, 2012 07:38 am (UTC) (Link)
It's so strong and tiny and graceful. It makes lovely shadows. It's awesome against the blue.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 24th, 2012 03:58 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thank you! I'm particularly happy you mentioned the shadows, because I didn't plan to take pictures with shadows, but once I saw how they looked I just had to include some.

Wallace & Gromit icon love!
pinkdormouse From: pinkdormouse Date: January 24th, 2012 10:04 pm (UTC) (Link)
That#s amazing!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 27th, 2012 04:59 am (UTC) (Link)
Thanks!
meneleth From: meneleth Date: January 25th, 2012 07:06 pm (UTC) (Link)
That is fantastic! You have a wonderful talent! Thank you for sharing it with us.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 27th, 2012 05:00 am (UTC) (Link)
Thanks, it's kind of you to say!
sophie1 From: sophie1 Date: January 25th, 2012 08:24 pm (UTC) (Link)
Awesome and beautiful! You must have a tremendous amount of patience. Great job.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 27th, 2012 05:04 am (UTC) (Link)
Thank you! At about the halfway point though, it was definitely a case of "can't stop now, I've worked on it too much already!"
aprilvalentine From: aprilvalentine Date: January 25th, 2012 10:16 pm (UTC) (Link)
Honey, you are a genius! This is just beautiful and amazing.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 27th, 2012 05:04 am (UTC) (Link)
Thanks dear, glad you like it!
fera_festiva From: fera_festiva Date: January 26th, 2012 09:30 am (UTC) (Link)
Holy CRAP.

I will never get tired of your paper sculptures - they are seriously incredible.
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: January 27th, 2012 05:13 am (UTC) (Link)
Thanks, that's very kind! \

I first came up with the idea for this one while sitting on the bus and wasn't sure what to think as it got progressively more complex...I'm still kind of surprised to see it finished and sitting in front of me at last.
unavoidedcrisis From: unavoidedcrisis Date: February 2nd, 2012 06:10 am (UTC) (Link)
Linked from the geek crafts blog and originally came here to give you a righteous fist bump for citing Newsies as an inspiration/what got you into this type of architecture, and now I want to add a second righteous fist bump for how stellar it looks. So, so cool!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: February 8th, 2012 06:34 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thank you! Newsies is great for inspiration: it also led to this, this and this :-)

::fist bump::
k4472744 From: k4472744 Date: February 3rd, 2012 11:57 pm (UTC) (Link)
Wow, that's awesome!
I just want to ask for the tutorial, but when i read in one of comment that it took you almost a year to finish it. i don't think i can manage to done that!

Great Job!
ldhenson From: ldhenson Date: February 8th, 2012 06:41 pm (UTC) (Link)
Thanks very much!

Well, I did take a break of many months between coming up with the rough draft and finishing it up. But yeah, it did take a lot of refining and a lot of hours.
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User: ldhenson
Name: ldhenson
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