Students practiced cutting and folding pre-printed motif designs before coming up with interesting designs of their own.
They worked on medium-weight white drawing paper which they divided into at least five 2-inch boxes. They left a border around the outer edge of the paper. Most students developed some sort of template that they could trace around in order to keep their motifs consistent.
Once they had all of their designs transferred to the paper, they carefully began cutting designated lines with a razor-knife. (During their practice work, they quickly found out that the goal was NOT to cut out the entire motif, just sections that could be folded in an interesting way.)
After cutting all of the designs, they turned the paper over to avoid having to erase their guide lines. In most cases, the designs were “opened” to about a 45-degree angle.
As a final step, the paper was mounted on a sheet of black railroad board and displayed where the light would create interesting value patterns on the cut and folded paper.
I used this project several years in my mixed-level classes as a “first” project for my upper level students while I got Art 1 students engaged in their first projects.