Pop-Up Pyramid

How to make a pyramid pop out of a plain piece of paper.

Step 1: Draw a Square With a Couple of Gaps

Step 2: Draw a Couple of Lines Next to the Square

Step 3: Repeat the Square and Line

Rectangles are OK, too.

Step 4: And Again

A couple more times should do it.

Step 5: Cut!

Bust out the razor and cut along the lines. Goes much faster if you do all the verticals first, and then do the horizontals.

Step 6: Pull!

Grab the center square and pull it out. Your plain piece of paper is now a funky bit of pop-up pyramidness.

Step 7: Get More Elaborate

If you have a serious case of OCD or a laser cutter you can take a simple idea to some ridiculous extremes.

Step 8: Change Direction

Instead of drawing squares and then lines, try drawing just squares with a 1/4 rotation in each successive square.

In other words, leave a gap on the right and left for the first, the top and bottom for the next, and back and forth and so on.

Step 9: Change Shapes

Here's an example of a circle design with a slight twist to it. It's too subtle to really see here, unfortunately.

Comments

[Chisom Obiukwu]

hi

[Chisom Obiukwu]

jk

[nikkim]

would it turn out okay if you use a rectangle instead or would it turn out differently?

[malialtin]

These are a few of my trials... If you choose irregular gap widths and lengths between lines you will have a 3 dimensionaly self bending form while it is hung from apex.

[fungus amungus]

Whoa, these look great.

Sorry about the late late comment. Haven't looked at this page in a while.

[playful-geometer]

This looks really fun, I think it could make some fun deco attaching them to ceilings. If I do end up giving it a try with my CraftRobo Pro, I'll post my cutlines...

[foks]

thinking about projection from the top on this. im making pyramid to test

[Michaelgoode]

nice

[Meganoki]

really cool!!! i did it ont he first try!!

[SevereFlame]

Are you using cheese!?!?! LOL

[aqwiz]

 Nope, .. .  'E's usin' COCONUTS!!!

[babymama11]

they aint using cheese! duh

[KnexFreek]

 cool :)

[=SMART=]

Here are my attempts :P mine seemed to just get wider as i drew the boxes lol

[Kryptonite]

Wow nice, looks great if you ask me.

[uzerzero]

I'm loving the fountain pen :) I like doing little tedious things like this to pass time in class, or at work, but unfortunately X-Acto blades are frowned upon at school. If there was a method to do this that didn't involve an x-acto blade, this would be really incredible :)

[SmurfJ]

Well a teacher seeing you in class cutting paper with scissors OR an exacto would be a little worried. What i do is run a regular ball point pen along hte lines over and over again with lots of pressure untill it 'cuts' the paper it doesnt look as clean, but it works!

[Trebawa]

When i'm bored in class I do this and it works. When using relatively thin lined filler paper, you only need to push down hard enough the first time and the paper will neatly split.

[Clayton H.]

Newspaper is easier. _*wink*

[Jesus Christ]

or bring a little razor blade to school and keep your jacket sleeve over your hand? or just use a pocket knife and tell your teacher its for self protection...