Holiday Craft Project: Paper Icosidodecahedron

This year for the holidays I made some ornaments.  I'd wanted to make something a little more complicated, but in the end opted out for something that would use (mostly) straight lines and wouldn't require glue to put together.

The ornament is based on a stellated  icosidodecahedron.  I cut out triangles with a circle cut out of the middle to give the design an airier feel.

The edge of the triangle is about two inches; anything smaller and it would have been too difficult to assemble.







Five triangles hooked into each other pop into a three-dimensional star shape.  (Pause to imagine giant triangles making some cool outdoor gazebo.)  The triangle edges are slotted so they'll make a five-pointed star wen assembled.

There are several ways to put the different colors together.  I like to start with five triangles of the same color to make a star.  Other times I'll surround a triangle of one color with three of another and make a banded effect.












I didn't actually link the stars together at their points... but you could, and get a giant snub dodecahedron... and I would have for this post, except that I didn't have enough triangles (it would take 60 triangles... eyes cutter-plotter).

Back to this project,... I decided to make a blue and a green star joined together with a band of purple.

Usually I put the triangles together directly into the sphere, but for purposes of illustrating how things go together, I made the two end stars first, being sure that I kept the slots on the triangles on the same sides

Here's an interior shot, showing the geometry of interlaced pentagons and hexagons.

The last triangles require a little sphere flexing to fit together.

The holes in the triangles are useful for turning the sphere into an ornament.  I suppose a larger construction could be used as light shades.