trouble in polyhedra-land
it’s not always roses with these colorful, stellated polygons of delight
A couple days ago I decided to tackle the 270-piece polyhedron, so found this site for instructions. The instructions were clear and helpful, and I should have read them very carefully before beginning the challenge. Luckily, I hadn’t created new sonobe units for this structure. But silly of me to not have read the part about larger units creating flimsy models, as Mr. Stephan Lavavej explains on his site. I spent all of Saturday contorted, frustrated and in tears at my failed attempt at the now elusive ‘Epcot ball’. I rarely accept failure, and this was one time I did. But it doesn’t mean I’ll never try again.
saturday morning began rather innocently with a fresh start at this origami behemoth
it got a little messier once i started running out of surface area. and the different colored units didn’t help with my confusion
an origami infestation. going back to the site and rereading the instructions like every word mattered (because it did), helped tremendously
i soon moved to the floor and decided that color coordinating sections would be far more helpful, which it was. it was also a lot easier on the eyes. i think this was my third or fourth attempt. by this time it was around 3 pm
around 10 pm, at my sixth or seventh attempt, trying to use every contraption known to man to keep this structure from collapsing on itself, i kicked the damn thing and started bawling like a baby. it was like a pandora’s box of sadness was unleashed. stupid epcot ball
i was saved by a phone call from yasmine, during which i bawled some more (about all my ills) and subconsciously did this. sisters really are a blessing
then, just for fun and instant gratification, i placed the units in this bowl and instagrammed it
the following day i decided to put all my previous polyhedra back together again, color-coordinated this time
i wrote mr. lavavej a long email wondering what i had done wrong, if he had any practical advice for me, and attached a photo of my loser polyhedron. he responded saying that my pieces were too large and that they weren’t all folded to precision (which is true, i must admit). so i made them much smaller, which makes them sturdier, but far less precise. so i’m thinking of using very light paper next time to facilitate the folding
baby icosahedron
for now, i’ll stick to the larger size polyhedra, but try to be more precise with the folding
