Topological polyhedra

Hi, I’m Louisa and this is Abagail, Anna and Elizabeth.

These were all inspired by @pubultrastar’s exploration into a set of shapes in the app Stella. I decided to see if I could do some similar shapes with a pure laser construction, and this is what resulted.


Louisa: This is a stellated rhombic dodecahedron, an interesting shape I hadn’t seen before.

Puppy nose for scale.

Abagail: I decided to go a little further and did a true stellated regular dodecahedron.

You have to weave the pieces together as you assemble, it’s tricky.

Anna: This is a dodecadodecahedron, basically a stellated dodecahedron nested inside a simple dodecahedron. This is much harder to assemble than the others, the process of weaving the pieces was really tricky to figure out.

It took several hours to assemble… if I did it again I’d be faster, but figuring it out was hard.

Elizabeth: A variant on a stellated dodecahedron, this one was much simpler to build – You just need to thread the faces between each other as you go. Definitely the easiest to construct.

It’s hard to tell from this but this one is also the most open of the structures, which I like. Was going for something with a bit more breathing room.

And here is the whole family. A banana for scale, but this is an imperial banana, which is about 1.3 metric bananas. (Read: it was a big banana. Anna (on right) is 10" point to point)

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wow. my tiny mind is blown

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This is getting out of hand and out of my ability to math! :rofl:

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Great job. My mind can’t even think like that kind of math it takes to do this.

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I did zero math! It’s all about good software. I use Stella, Sketchup, and Inkscape. I rely on guides a great deal to keep things aligned, and I use clones to make multiple copies of parts. Using clones lets me make changes to the design later on that will carry through to the final design (things like slot thickness etc).

Good software is key. Stella is great for exploring and designing shapes. Sketchup or something other 3D model software lets you scale and simulate the design with scale material thicknesses, then it’s all vector editing after that.

Further reading:

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Beautifully done! The puppy nose is the perfect scale object, btw. You’re amazing at making these!

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I am so happy there are people like you on this forum who keep extending the promise of this machine. Wowzer.

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The curvy ones are sexy. Well done!

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Love them

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I would get all tangled up doing this.

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Anna is my favorite!

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Heh, your opinion might change if you sat down and built the Anna model. It was… frustrating :slight_smile:

On the other hand, it was really satisfying when it came together!

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I bet! :wink:

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The shadows on these show they’d make fabulous chandeliers!

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I can’t believe you can make such complicated shapes. I wouldn’t even be able to start figuring out to design something like that. You have a rare talent.

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Abagail is my favorite, but all the little women are wonderful to see!

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Love structures and the puppy nose. Boop it for me please. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Consider him (Paul) booped!

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He is adorable :smiley:

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Wow. Maybe it’s just the pictures, but it seems there’s a bit of optical illusion, too… all the weaving and curved cuts makes it looks like the material is twisting even though it’s flat.

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