Lessons in geometry

I've been playing a lot with paper items recently and wanted to share some of the three-dimensional shapes I've made. Both are made with twenty pieces (circles/triangles).

On the left is a icosahedron (20 triangular faces) made of water-colored cardstock.

The second is a small triambic icosidodecahedron (that's a mouthful!) found on George Hart's website and shown in much better detail here.



I'm digging the triangles on the triambic icosidodecahedron and the graphic quality of the black and white. They remind me a little of the Sven Markelius' Pythagorous textile.


These shapes--and ones based on other simple polyhedrons--are used a lot in build-your-own light kits, such as the IQ-lamp, left, (See here for a good DIY), and the particularly beautiful Mokusei lamp,right, made out of maple veneer.