I started off by getting inspiration from the paper craft book in the Comp Craft locker. Man, that book is so cool. In the book, I found some interesting accordion folds. How perfect would that be for muscle wire, I thought, so perfect.  So I folded up cardstock, sewed and soldered in my muscle wire and tested it out. When the fan was folded together my muscle wire lost tension and the effect of the 10% shrinkage was invisible.

Undeterred, I tried a flat to folded method. That one worked and I made a button to go with the interaction. You pinch the fold to fold the paper. See the video below!

Summary: Liza was right that this stuff is tough to work with. In the future, I’d use a slightly thinner paper and thread the muscle wire through the folds with the metal crimps intermittently in order to hold it in place and provide the shrinking fan effect that I’d originally envisioned.