Jigsaw Puzzle (2023-2025)
Each piece folded from one square piece of kami
Crease Pattern: Below
Diagrams: Some day

Jigsaw Puzzle: Would you like to play a game?

I have to confess, my origami pipe dreams are usually way beyond my ability to design and fold real paper. A few years ago I had the idea to fold a jigsaw puzzle. As in a whole jigsaw puzzle, tessellation-style, with a single piece missing somewhere in the middle. Pretty quickly I abandoned that idea. Jigsaw puzzle pieces are way too curvy to fold convincingly en masse.

The next idea was to fold a single puzzle piece. Even though this model is just a single puzzle piece, it is quite complex. There is a color change along the 3D rim, and a number of difficult pleats are required to make innie and outie hexagons. Plus, this is less a single model than a system for folding any kind of puzzle piece (corner, edge, any combination of innies and outies, which I assume are the technical jigsaw puzzle terms). Nevertheless, a group of intrepid folders folded puzzle pieces with me at the 2024 Origami USA convention!

Since then I tried to simplify the design. I still owe a crease pattern, diagrams, and/or a video showing how to fold this. Maybe then, someone might fold a 1000-piece puzzle this way! (Though if you’re feeling up to that, please consider folding my Giant American Millipede instead.)