Folding Techniques for Designers

2.    Basic Pleats

Pleats are the most common, versatile and easy-to-use of all folding techniques. This chapter describes how to make the four basic types – Accordion, Knife, Box and Incremental pleats – and shows how even this basic knowledge can be used to create a great diversity of sophisticated surfaces and forms. Although clearly related, these four types of pleat create very different results, so it is worthwhile learning them all.

Techniques of folding are often interconnected. Some of the techniques in later chapters develop the basic pleat patterns introduced here, so time spent on this chapter will enable you to use much of the rest ...