The Origami Forum

If anyone could give me a few hints on the Neal Elias "Dovecote" in Secrets of Origami. It would be much appreciated. It appears to be a simple model, but somewhere in steps 4 - 6 some black magic occurs.

Welcome to the forum! I just moved and my books are still in a box somewhere. If no one beats me to it, I'll find the book and see if I can shed some light on the problem.

I found the book. Step 4 has a color error. At that point the illustration should indicate the colored side of the paper, not the white side. Steps 4 and 5 shows inside reverse folds, simply tucking the flaps in on the indicated folds. Step 6 is a double inside reverse fold on the indicated lines on the two side flaps, reversing the fold up then down. When I was trying step 6, I noticed that the model did not want to lie flat until after both reverse folds were made. This model contains several folds on lines that you have to estimate, so it may take some trial and error. Good luck and if you have any other questions, please let us know.

Ray,

Thanks for the detailed reply. I think I'm now ready to give a better description of the problem.

In step 6, when reversing the sides in, it seems there's no way to avoid ending up with some scrunched paper in the vertex where the folds don't line up, unless you pull out the sides, but this makes fold 7 impossible. It looks like a lovely little model but it's given me hours and hours of grief.

--Danny

Danny,
I'll try to dig out some paper this weekend and give this model another look. I still haven't unpacked a large number of boxes, so I have to try to find my paper. Don't give up!

After reviewing the test folds of this model, I found that my paper was bunched up as well. I just flattened it as best as I could. Perhaps someone else could take a look and see if they have better luck or if we just have to be happy that these folds are inside the model.