Origami Architecture of Peoria, Illinois’ Skyline
Idea
The September card is another is origami architecture (OA or BT5) design. For this one, I chose to do the skyline of Peoria, Illinois, a river town in the center of the state. During the vaudeville era, Peoria was considered to be the bellwether city. If it played in Peoria, it would play anywhere.
When you drive in from the east on I74, you come around a bend that reveals a great view of the skyline, which I’ve always enjoyed and hoped to have captured in this card. The view is looking west over the river toward the city.
Design
As I mentioned in previous posts, OA designs are cut from one piece of paper with no additional pieces glued on the mechanism, so it takes careful planning. I followed similar steps described in Freshman year VT OA card, using a 2mm grid and layers in the Silhouette Cameo’s software to create the pop-up.
To design the layout, I used photos for the profiles and Google maps for the depth of each structure. In the close-up below you can see the paddle wheel boat, then the trees on the shore, and eventually the twin towers on the left and bank buildings on the right.
Here’s the key:
For OA, it usually takes a few passes to get things right, which is why I use the Silhouette Cameo for cutting out full-size sketches (instead of my usual ¼ size sketches). In this case, I have only three drafts.
The “Peoria” on the top was originally cut out of the base, but I used painters’ tape to hold the inner, lose pieces of the ‘o’ and ‘a’ in place and when removing it during the final assembly it damaged the paper. Instead of creating another iteration, I created the two ovals and attached them to the base which actually looks better than my original concept. (So, yes, I did use more than one piece – but not for the mechanism!).
Cover
This cover is the current city logo cut from four pieces of paper using the Silhouette Cameo.
Build
- 9” x 6”
- Everything was cut by the Silhouette Cameo.
- The base and mechanism are from colored cardstock