Dragon Curves are ‘curves’ created when you fold a strip of paper many times. Chromatic Scale shows the creases in the paper with successive folds. Orange shows folds that go inwards (valley folds), cream represents folds that go outwards (mountain folds).
The long orange line, in the centre, represents where the paper was folded in half. A quarter of the way from each end are the next longest coloured stripes, representing the second fold.
As you continue to fold the strip (which you can only do about six times in real life) more and more creases appear.
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Chromatic Scale
CROCHET INFORMATION
The background of the wall-hanging shown in the photo was made with knitting ribbon. The lines were made with a thicker textured yarn. Any yarn could be used.
There are beads on the bottom edge which are not vital to the design. They show the same sequence of colours as the top row.
The background is worked in one piece as a treble (UK definition) filet grid.
The lines are added afterwards with surface crochet.
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Take a l-o-n-g strip of paper and fold it in half, half again and half again. Open it up and crease it firmly on the folds, taking care not to bend them in the wrong direction. Stand the paper on its edge with each fold forming a right angle. You should see this when you look down on it.
This is called a Dragon Curve. If you turn over the strip of paper, the dragon will be going in the opposite direction.
This dragon is known as an Order 3 Dragon because it is the result of folding a strip of paper 3 times.
The wall-hanging has bands to represent dragons of orders 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Order 7 is at the top and the Order 3 band is just below the middle.
Order 1 has 1 fold
Order 2 has 3 folds
Order 3 has 7 folds
Order 4 has 15 folds
Order 5 has 31 folds
Order 6 has 63 folds
Order 7 has 127 folds
When the bands are placed next to each other it can be seen that each extra dragon has the same folds as before with new ones in between. The new folds alternate between cream and orange, making it very easy to keep track of the pattern.