The Fitful Flog

We’re back from the Convention in New York and our head is still spinning a bit, but not so’s you’d notice. We can report that a good time was had by all and that Mélisande*’s and my class on Monday went very well, indeed. Tato boxes were the topic of the day and it was a sell-out crowd — an enthusiastic crowd, methought, as well.

Since the spinning continues, a twist fold seems in order and as it’s Independence Day, a star-shaped model is not inappropriate. This is from a decagon, though I think it could be easily adapted to a pentagon or a circle, and is very much a tato — a tato marked by manifest inutility, no doubt, but a tato, nevertheless. It’s called Falling Star Tato, since the purse section is so small that it could not contain much more than a wish.

Here is a crease pattern and the same in postscript and some general notes:

• Make a decagon from a square
• Connect every fourth corner, to make a decagram
• Inscribe a pentagram inside the decagram
• The central pentagon of the pentagram is the purse portion
• The puff star is made by folding another pentagram inside the central pentagon and by making another pentagon around it.
• Make your tato and then hide the edges
• Pop the sides of the tato in to make a puff star

That will make more sense if you look at the crease pattern and pay some special attention to the gray lines. And I will confess, that after teaching pentagonal shapes all weekend, I realize it can sound a bit like gnostic formulae if you’re not used to it. Let those who can hear, hear — the rest of you lot, study up.