Scallop Shell

Enjoyable to fold and designed to display the intrinsic beauty of just about any paper. This model can be folded as a single-valve specimen or as a hinged pair when you join two mirror-image specimens using a locking mechanism I devised for this model. Having studied mollusks and their shells for most of my life, I took special care when planning the style and the proportions of this model. Editing in origami can be challenging, as it was for this model. The effort is always interesting and a worthwhile journey. (I could show you scores of folded, inelegant investigations; failures that littered the path of this origami journey!) I love to fold paper samples from all over the world into these origami scallops- papers I have acquired over many years, each attached to fond memories of when and where, who and why, of what and for what purpose, personal and locked within the folds like a love letter to paper, travel, and friends.