HORST KIECHLE - PAPER TORSO - EXAMPLES/FEEDBACK
Home   Torso   Organs   Hearts  
 
Below a selection of completed organs send to me ( horst.kiechle[at]gmail.com ). I am grateful for these as they give me more insight in how I might be able to improve the designs/instructions.
 
  Update 2015/2019: 
Thank you to all who have sent me feedback and images. It is great to see how the project is spreading around the world and how more and more school classes are having a go at it. I am busy with other projects now, so will no longer post examples here but on Instagram with the hash tag #papertorsobyothers  
 

   Makoto (October 2013): 
"We have finished making the Paper torso.
I have attached pictures.

Last week was held the school festival.
My class displayed the Paper torso.

... my class gets First prize.
I can't thank you enough."
 
 

   Christoph (October 2013): ' Denn Tipp mit Organen zu beginnen habe ich natürlich direkt ignoriert weil ich unbedingt so einen Torso wollte. Es war deutlich mehr Arbeit als erwartet und auch deutlich komplizierter als "einfach Papierstücke zusammenkleben". Vor allem die von vielen Gefürchteten x y z Lagen bereiteten einiges an Kopfzerbrechen und Frust, erst ganz zum Schluss hatte ich verstanden, was das System dahinter war.
Trotzdem hat es ohne größere Probleme geklappt, die Anleitung mit Bildern war sehr sehr hilfreich, ich habe einige Anmerkungen hinzugefügt wo es Zahlendreher gab, ich hoffe das hilft anderen.'

I obviously ignored the recommendation to start with the organs as I desperately wanted a torso. It was a lot more work than expected and a lot more complicated than 'just gluing paper together'. Especially the x y z layers, dreaded by many, caused headaches and frustration, only at the very end did I understand the underlying system.
Despite all that it worked without any major problems, the instructions with images were very very useful, I've added some comments where there were typos, hope it helps others. [My translation]
Looks good! - Many thanks for helping to correct the instructions. I am sure it will help others until I have time to go over it all again.

 

   Callas (October 2013): ' After about 4 months of cutting and glueing while listening to audiobooks, I finished making a complete paper torso! It's a bit crooked and for some reason I haven't used ts102 and ts103, but it fits together! I found it very relaxing to work on this, so I'm frantically looking for some new project.'

Congratulations! The FIRST image of a completed torso with organs send to me. I had a number of emails of people having serious trouble with the x, y and z layers of the torso - eventually giving up. So, to see that it is possible is wonderful news to me. Thank you!

 

   Makoto (October 2013): ' ... I am a Japanese student. My class make a paper torso. We make it everyday. - I will send pictures as soon as it is completed.'

Two firsts here:
1) My website gets a lot of hits from Japan. I thought someone must be doing something there, but this is the first picture I have received of a completed organ (heart with subdivisions) from Japan. Thank you!
2) This is the first time I had feedback that the torso gets done as an official class project. It is a very ambitious project - good luck! I am still hoping that I will be able to do an easier 'school version' in the future.
 

   Carlos (August 2013): ' I came upon your paper torso project through wired.com and it got me real intrested.
...
It actually took me 3 tries before getting acceptable paper heart, probably was better to start with a simpler organ, but finally got it. The golden-ish color is just some left over paper i had from a previous project i was working on.'

Nice one - and I guess the shininess of the paper helps to distract from minor imperfections.
 

   Juliane (August 2013): ' It was so much fun making them and much more easy than I first thought. I am a Biologist so I was excited to see how the organs will come out, ...'

Yes, looking good. ... and the thing at the bottom right is not a carrot but the pancreas.
 

   Heidi (August 2013): 'I found your website through Tumblr and immediately suggested to my younger brother of 12 years to try to do it. He's interested in becoming an architect and loved doing the project. Attached are the pictures of the heart (for the torso) made by him today with a little bit of assistance from me. He's keen in continuing doing the whole torso plus the organs.'

Great one! Good to hear that it can be a one-day-project - and by someone as young as 12.
 

   Oliver (August 2013): 'As a student of medicine, the heart with subdivisions has impressed me most.
Next I'll try to assemble the other organs and the torso.'

Nice to see the three heart versions 'Heart For Torso', 'Heart Closed' and 'Heart With Interior Subdivisions' next to each other. Note the difference in size if printed at the default size.
There is now a YouTube video for each step of the instructions for the 'Heart With Interior Subdivisions' . Some steps are trivial and a video is not really needed, but if a problem arises - the video is there as back-up.
 

   Genevieve (July 2013): 'I figure the torso will take me another month or so to finish, and then I will need to finish the lungs and liver as well. ... The intestines were definitely a challenge, particularly attaching the parts of the small intestines to the large intestines. I've been using rubber cement... it's worked really well so far because it dries fast and holds strong.'
'Getting the ts layer of the torso up was really encouraging, but I'm starting to work on the xyz layers inside and it's so frustrating! Must carry on though!'

Yes, the xyz layers are really tricky. Been through it a few times myself. And there is no easy solution until I find the time to do a major re-design.
 

   Boris (June 2013): 'I send you some images of the closed heart that I just made, I adjusted the size of the paper to "Carta EEUU" (216x279mm), and it worked very well, the only problem I had was that I didn't know in what way to fold the paper, which caused me a lot of trouble when I needed to glue together the next pieces. I have one question, what kind of paper do you use?, it's like a cardboard?, which specifically?. I hope start to made the full torso soon.'

Mountain or valley fold seems to have been a problem with the closed heart. I have since added additional images to the instructions which will help, hopefully.
For recommended paper and glue please see this clip on my YouTube channel.
 

   Andrew (February 2013):  'I was amazed (and somewhat challenged) by the complexity. ... It's quite ingenious and I really enjoyed putting it together - a weekend well spent.'
'I also found the last few triangles hard to glue together and ended up with a little section of the heart popped in. Do you have any tips to avoid that? I was using Pritstick so putting pressure on the triangles was important.'

Thanks, well, never use a glue stick. For alternatives please see this clip in my YouTube channel.

 

   Rachel (June 2013):  'I saw photos of your paper torso and organs on Tumblr. I then decided to make the "closed heart." It was a bit of a challenge but I had fun making it.'

Really intrigued by this one as I never would have thought you could make these using paper from a lined notepad. And the 'wobbly shape' is probably closer to a real heart than the crisp, architecturally designed examples I produce ...
 

   Deronia (March 2013):  'You wanted pictures of any attempts at making your heart. I completed it earlier this week. As you can see, I did it in red. It was very tedious but I stuck with it. I would say it took about a week and a half of careful work.'

Congrats! The templates have been up for about 6 months and this is still the only example I am aware of of a completed 'Heart with interior subdivisions' - and a beautifully executed one at that.
 
AMORPHOUS CONSTRUCTIONS   -   2013-2019