Here is a link to my diagram for an origami bat from a poker card.

Click here!

I use it as a memento to give away in my routine VladSpike (described in another thread). I wonder how else it might be used....

As a finishing touch, I have found that the clear plastic tubes sold to coin collectors for storing stacks of US Jefferson nickels are exactly the right size to hold one of the finished bats with his wings nicely rolled around his body. I suspect there is a standard sized test tube that would work as well, but I haven't located it yet.

Please feel free to use this if it suits you... I would get a real thrill out of finding one in the wild that I hadn't folded.

I've been attempting this fold for the last hour, and I'm not sure how we get from step one to step two.

After folding up the bottem corners I'm not sure I understand how the wings are placed on a diagonal.

I can see that the diagram might suffer a bit from brevity. Valuable in careful writing, but possibly not in clear explication of a series of steps. But you see, it fits on one sheet this way...

It may help if you leave the card mountain-folded along the center of the body and work on each wing individually. The wings should be symmetric anyway. If you do that, then after folding up the bottom corner, the wing folds across the body, and the rabbit ear crimp is more natural.

Looking at the diagram today, the valley folds that separate the wings from the body are not particularly obvious. Each wing is folded from the toe point roughly along the edge of the flap to the center point of the rabbit-ear crimp.

The tear between the ears should extend only far enough down the body to give the ears their shape.

The last step is to fold the toes to the back. Done last, this locks the wings in position and even provides a nice way to hang it in a natural, sleeping bat posture.

I will fold one later tonight and take pictures to add to the page where the diagram sits. Having a photograph of the result may help.

Incidentally, when adjusting for a rectangle other than a poker card, you need to adjust the angle of those folds that separate the wings from the body so that the proportions remain reasonble.

*******

I updated the web page to include photos of a bat being folded to attempt to clarify any questions about the diagram and to show a finished bat.

home.earthlink.net/~berteig/BatCard/PokerCardBat.html

Enjoy!

I believe I've been able to come up with the correct final product. It took some work. Thank you for your help - this is a neat fold!

Kindest Regards,
George Tait

This is cute. I'm going to try it and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Anabelle

"This time for sure, Rocky!"

I just had it pointed out to me that although I did take pictures and update the text, I didn't actually upload it to the right spot.

It's better now.

The page at home.earthlink.net/~berteig/BatCard/PokerCardBat.html. now actually has the pictures I thought I put there days ago.

Oops. Sorry for any confusion.

I really like this idea. This can be a great souvenir to give away. It's made me want to go back through my origami books and see if there's anything else that can be adapted. Thanks for the info and photos!

Hahahaha! I love this! Is there a book out there on playing card origami?

Hmm. Perhaps I should collect a few more models and write one. I know I didn't find any folds explicitly for playing cards when I started my quest for this bat by searching the origami litterature (or at least that part of it findable online).

Part of the difficulty, of course, is the medium itself. Traditionally, origami is done with washi, a light-weight strong paper made from mulberry bark. It can take a remarkable number of creases without tearing.

A Bicycle card, on the other hand, can take about three folds along any particular crease before it wants to start to tear...

I was recently shown a one fold elephant, perhaps that could be adapted?

Seriously, the modular origami folks often work with business cards. Its probably possible to adapt many of those for playing cards. That would add a new dimension to the classic house of cards

SWEET!!!

Ross

This is great. I think magic goes to the next level when we leave a piece of it with our spectators. This is a perfect example of something that will be saved and the story re-told often by the person you give it to. Thanks for sharing it.

Very nice, thanks for posting it! I recently picked up a small bat carved from stone. I wanted it just as a piece of art, but the more I look at it, the more it just seems to be begging for inclusion in an effect.

Perhaps combining it with this fold? Anyone have any good bat-themed effects that they can point me to? How are you using this folded bat, for example?

I just made the bat out of one of my Black Tiger Bicycles and it looks so cool! Now it really does look like a little bat. Just thought I'd share that.

Don't think there's been a book yet on folding playing cards - I second the thought, Ross - go for it! I have a feeling it'd get a great response.

Thanks. Something I always try to do is find effects where some kind of memento can be left in the hands of a spectator. My goal is to leave a concrete reminder of the sense of wonder. Something that can become the basis of family stories.



I chased the idea of this bat as the ideal memento for an original piece I am developing with the working title VladSpike. A version of it told as a story is found here.

I love origami and Oriental magic. Reading your post and seeing your bat gave me an idea: I'll create a close-up routine only with origami.

Combining an origami fold with a mythological tale would be a wonderful treat. Origami is so mysterious and complicated to the lay person (and ME!). It is almost like watching a Mage cast a spell on a piece of paper and having it transform into a creature.

I also folded this with a Black Tiger card. It looks really good. I think these cards may add a little something darker to your already wonderful routine. Thanks for sharing this!

After making the bat, perhaps you could hold it to the light and have it vanish in a puff of smoke.

Just a thought.

Great idea Jonathan!