WIGGLE DISCOVERS ARCHIMEDES CUBOCTAHEDRON IS NEW AGAIN

I was scrolling through the shapes in Poly for some other interesting shapes that would use triangles and squares the same colors as Madi's pillow.
Cuboctahedron, in the Archimedian Solids looked cube-simple. At fourteen sides it looks a little simpler than it really is. In it's cyclocentric form, this model has a fairly high wad-factor. I unfortunately got lost and had to rip out a number of well sewn seams before I finally got it straightened out. I referred often to a paper peel-model from the printer. Models may not be good for much but they've  really gotten me craving to see one that's built soft, stuffed full enough to see what does as it puffs toward an even more spherical shape. The edges on the cyclocentric cuboctahedron and those of the fleece gyrobifistigium were both nine inches, so I had make new templates.

   I never could run the networks very far, but looking at the sample nets on the cyclocentric pages
I managed to ape enough on my patched together poster board to get some accurate seeming patterns.

 The denim triangles saved the day when I ran out of canvas and had to use old jean legs.

    I was looking for cubocta look-a-likes, when I found the snub square antiprism, J85 in the Johnson Solids. With twenty six sides, twenty four of them triangular it's got lots of edges to wiggle. Ouch, that's twelve more than I bought fabric for. Once again, a more careful examination would have saved time. It looks like after Christmas before this reveal.

Intriguing Yule Tide Stellation

A pentagram, bisected, flipped, and folded makes a much more interesting star, but only in 3dimensions. Consider it an excellent excuse to make a simple model that looks exceptional.

The inner pillow form began as a foam cube sawn into roughly the correct shape with a serrated knife. The foam  was then layered over in coarse stitched cotton batting, with some loops penetrating to the center of the opposing face.The pillow form cover is white satin, and so a little fragile.

I feel like I got a head start on this one already. I've seen the template work twice now, and the shape is one I want laying around in canvas. I'll tack on the completed shell pix as soon as I've made it.

Tension Builds Where 2 Meets 3 On A Bias

The marking went a little weird. Canvas doesn't seem to stretch much, but carefully marked with templates mated to their reflected shape were gaining or loosing a quarter inch or more when pinned from one end or the other. All this chasing and pulling of the edge itself distracted me for a seam or two from the ground rules of fabric, it usually stretches but seldom evenly. Point control using pins had gotten me trough walking fabric before, but hitting one is easy and several kinds of a drag. Starting at the ends and working in potential errors are absorbed through compression or stretch over the whole edge. I liked these clamps better than pins. No poking accidents, and they're easy to not sew over.

 There's nothing mysterious about cutting on the bias, but it's been awhile since my last polyhedra pillow. Strange as they felt in the sewing, they came out great. They're about 14 inches in diameter, natural cream canvas about as thick as my jeans. The canvas makes such a tough pillow form they'll keep for now.

I'll probably get cyclocentrical some more later, but for now I've got a couple of more odd fish to fry first.

Rhombic Dodecahedron Gets A Wiggle On

Quoting from zindra on earthlink in 2006 "there is, however, a subtle twist to this picture, both literally and figuratively, in that another family of regular volumetric polyhedra exists, heretofore overlooked, which can be generated from the circle alone using only a compass: the cyclocentric polyhedra."

While the weathered tumbled travertine of the garden rhombi looks seed or even nut-like, even this first proof of the cyclocentric rhombic dodecahedron definately has a wiggle on

. The grocery store compass I have is plastic and looks clunky, but it has a screw to lock it tight. This eight inch single wiggle edged rhombus should yield a pillow approximately 14 inches in diameter.

Cyclohedra Indeed

Ok, First things first. I have alluded to the mysterious "Cyclocentric  Polyhedra pages and admited to having a copy of them. So here they are.  

 

I have not yet even read all these pages and may not, still it tickles me to see this awesome content once again available. May Google and Blogspot keep it safe for us all. I'm pretty sure this earthlink post relates to the original source of this excellent material.    

CYCLOCENTRIC POLYHEDRA

Symmetry has been one of my favorite refuges for years, but I've let my notes and models get crowded out by my many new fascinations. Blocks, cornbread, and Flatware County history have had a lot more attention lately than the next possibly cool polyhedra, but the old flame still smolders.

  By the time Djuana sent me the "Sacred Geometry" link back in 2008 (no longer active), I had put models aside for awhile and mostly just made things I could keep or share out of my new favorite shapes. I even made some giant plankton and pollen grains out of ceramic. Recently while I was digging through old files I discovered a printout of the Cyclocentric Polyhedra pages. I remember thinking these might lead to some fun pillows, but the article was long and the renderings of the five shapes it featured looked like the assembly process would be a bit of a wrestling match. Using the illustrations from the article, I cleaned up a face and printed one for a pattern as big as possible on my printer. Sure enough, it fought me most of the way and looks wadded up after completion. Ought to make a bizarre pillow!