Zai Divecha shares how to turn plain white paper into a geometric sculpture with an intricate folded pattern.

San Francisco-based Zai Divecha is an artist transforming plain white paper into geometric works made by repetitive folds and pleats. She makes the intricate works by folding or pleating paper to form patterns of light and shadow. From tiny paper star tutorials to massive wall installations, Divecha’s pieces visually delight the eye making you almost forget that they began as paper. The monochromatic palette makes the patterns and textures pop simply by how the light hits them, hopefully leaving viewers feeling “centered, quiet and focused.” For this month’s Deconstruction, Divecha shares one such folded pattern which becomes a shadowbox framed piece called Torus. Zai Divecha working in studio

I work in a bright, sunny studio in the Inner Richmond in San Francisco. I rent space from Yonder Shop, a ceramics studio and beautifully-curated shop that?s in the other half of the building. It?s a sweet little community of makers.

I often start by making small models and prototypes to test out various paper techniques. I don?t usually do sketches, but I?ll often draw a very basic diagram in Illustrator to figure out the overall proportions and layout. Before I decided to make Torus, I tried the same pleat pattern in a few different sizes ? you can see the large versions at the top right, and then a tiny version at the bottom right. I lande...