Great cities are not like towns, only larger.They are not like suburbs, only denser. They differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, and one of these is that cities, by definition, are full of strangers.” *
Wallets are portable containers of our society’s documents. They transport currency, confirm identities, reveal affiliations, ensure safe passage, or afford us one. Their capacity to store transactions, certifications, remembrances and lists carry the potential to supply us with provisions, but their usefulness is in being filled.
Paper wallets are common in Japanese origami, and the City Wallet is by no means a lone star in that design constellation. The City Wallet is based on the wallet design invented by the Japanese-Italian mathematician and origami artist, Humiaki Huzita. As references, I used the business card holder design published in Rick Beech’s The Origami Handbook, and the card case variation published on page 64 of Gay Merrill Gross‘ Paper Creations. I separately folded the models, and then combined them to make the folds of the pockets more secure so my cards and cash don’t fall out like loose change, especially when I’m biking, running, skating, or simply going through transit checkpoints in a daze. The first models were quite an adventure, but after hours of fine tweaking, I have managed to make 9 variations from the two source models. I laminate the paper with an adhesive and reinforce the spines with bookcloth.
With the I-folds forming the outer pockets, there are 9 possible configurations for the inner pockets of the City Wallet:
4-pocket CZ wallet
5-pocket TZ wallet
5-pocket YZ wallet
5-pocket CT wallet
6-pocket TT wallet
6-pocket YT wallet
5-pocket CY wallet
6-pocket TY wallet
6-pocket YY wallet
