Origami Bloom Patterns: How to Fold a Y6.2 Bloom (Kelvin Wang)

Explore a new family of origami designs called Bloom patterns then learn how to fold one of your own with this step-by-step tutorial!

Kelvin (Zhongyuan) Wang, a student at Brigham Young University, recently discovered a new family of origami designs called Bloom patterns, which have several properties that make them particularly useful for real-world applications.

Wang authored a research paper titled "Bloom patterns: radially expansive, developable and flat-foldable origami", published by the Royal Society. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Robert J. Lang, an origami artist and theorist, and Dr. Larry L. Howell, a BYU professor who specializes in origami-inspired compliant mechanisms.

The paper is available here.

Bloom patterns were also featured in The New York Times.

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In this video, you will learn about the potential real-world applications of Bloom patterns, from medical applications to deploying solar arrays in space. Then you will learn how to fold a Y6.2 Bloom, a regular homogeneous hexagonal second-order Yoshimura Bloom pattern.

To fold a Y6.2 Bloom, you will need to prepare one hexagonal sheet of paper. I recommend preparing a bank hexagon to avoid unnecessary pre-creases. To do so, you can: (a) print and cut a hexagon from the template linked below (b) use a cutting machine such as a Cricut or Cameo (c) use acrylic/metallic hexagonal cutting templates

The tutorial will walk you through how precrease and collapse a Y6.2 Bloom from a blank hexagon. Then you will learn how to create higher-order Bloom patterns by extending the Y6.2 crease pattern to Y6.3 and beyond.

Special thanks to Kelvin Wang, Dr. Lang, Dr. Howell, and the rest of BYU's Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics Group for collaborating with me on this video.

To learn more, check out BYU's video about Bloom patterns.

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Resources:

• Template to cut a blank hexagon
• Supplementary materials (Bloom pattern videos, crease patterns, and animations)
• Thingiverse
• Printables
• MakerWorld

BYU's Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics Group (BYU CMR)

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Credits:

Some images and videos of Bloom patterns and the BYU's Compliant Mechanisms and Robotics Group were provided by the Brigham Young University.

Tutorial by Evan Zodl