Background
A few years ago, I crossed paths with the brilliantly talented VFX genius and magician Bill Taylor, and the topic of my fascination with playing cards somehow came up in our conversation. He in turn mentioned to me Ian Rowland's "WoW cards", a set of which he had been gifted by Ian at some point in the past. I was immediately intrigued by his description of these "puzzling cards" and after some Googling of what he had described to me unearthed a few examples, I was immediately hooked.
Since then, I have spent hours scouring obscure corners of the internet and have been able to uncover quite a few designs from across various puzzling websites, expired blog posts, and Flickr pages. This research was essential in my efforts to understand the art form and appreciate what is possible. I soon began to try to reproduce all the designs I could find.
There is not much information available about making these cards. I think this is a good thing. Through trial and error and lots of physical tinkering with both ordinary paper and old playing cards, I was able to gain familiarity with the basic folding concepts that make many of these designs possible. In time, I started designing my own refinements of existing designs, and eventually, completely new and original designs.
For me, part of the joy of discovering these cards has been figuring each one out in the process of reproducing them. There have been many instances where I have struggled for long periods of time to get a result that looks like the original design. Even now, there are still a few designs that I have not been able to successfully reproduce.
Since then, I have spent hours scouring obscure corners of the internet and have been able to uncover quite a few designs from across various puzzling websites, expired blog posts, and Flickr pages. This research was essential in my efforts to understand the art form and appreciate what is possible. I soon began to try to reproduce all the designs I could find.
There is not much information available about making these cards. I think this is a good thing. Through trial and error and lots of physical tinkering with both ordinary paper and old playing cards, I was able to gain familiarity with the basic folding concepts that make many of these designs possible. In time, I started designing my own refinements of existing designs, and eventually, completely new and original designs.
For me, part of the joy of discovering these cards has been figuring each one out in the process of reproducing them. There have been many instances where I have struggled for long periods of time to get a result that looks like the original design. Even now, there are still a few designs that I have not been able to successfully reproduce.
What are kirigami cards?
At the broadest level, I describe my "kirigami cards" as "ordinary playing cards that have been cut and folded into interesting designs." I find that the constrained canvas of a single playing card makes a fun challenge to see what types of designs are possible.
Upon closer examination, some of the designs will have a "puzzling" or seemingly "impossible" quality to them - that is to say, the method of folding to achieve the final form is not intuitive. For example, if one attempted to unfold such designs, it would quickly become clear that parts of the card are folded or wrapped around other parts of the card in very complicated ways.
I discovered this art form through Ian Rowland's "WoW Cards", which he now has branded as simply "Ian Cards". The card designs that I've personally cut and folded include reproductions of many of Ian Rowland's designs (and, I believe, following their rules). In addition, I've reproduced other scattered examples that I've unearthed in my research, which may or may not follow the same rules as Ian.
Some other names I've heard for these cards are "impossible cards", "quasi-impossible cards", "ReFlexions", "puzzle cards", and so on.
There can be many "subcategories" of these cards - depending on the "rules" that one subscribes to. Some of the designs are not at all puzzling or "impossible" - I just think they looked cool. For these reasons, I tend to use the very generalized category of "kirigami cards" as the parent descriptor for any cards that is cut and folded.
Upon closer examination, some of the designs will have a "puzzling" or seemingly "impossible" quality to them - that is to say, the method of folding to achieve the final form is not intuitive. For example, if one attempted to unfold such designs, it would quickly become clear that parts of the card are folded or wrapped around other parts of the card in very complicated ways.
I discovered this art form through Ian Rowland's "WoW Cards", which he now has branded as simply "Ian Cards". The card designs that I've personally cut and folded include reproductions of many of Ian Rowland's designs (and, I believe, following their rules). In addition, I've reproduced other scattered examples that I've unearthed in my research, which may or may not follow the same rules as Ian.
Some other names I've heard for these cards are "impossible cards", "quasi-impossible cards", "ReFlexions", "puzzle cards", and so on.
There can be many "subcategories" of these cards - depending on the "rules" that one subscribes to. Some of the designs are not at all puzzling or "impossible" - I just think they looked cool. For these reasons, I tend to use the very generalized category of "kirigami cards" as the parent descriptor for any cards that is cut and folded.