John Smith created the concept of Pureland folding back in the mid 70s (read more on his website). Essentially, it suggests you can create models that are easy to teach if you only use valley and mountain folds – no sinks, reverses, squashes etc.

I’ve often thought this is a concept with many unexplored possibilities – here’s an example of how this can inspire new approaches to folding, in this case making a reverse fold by manipulating “hidden” layers. I’ll be exploring pureland more over the coming weeks…