Woven Dodecahedron

thingiverse

There are many ways to conceive of the major polyhedra. Inscribed in spheres, inscribed in one another, completely independent constructions, self-referential objects, the list goes on. When I was in art school I spent some time examining the dodecahedron as a series of opposing pentagons, each mirrored and twisted in space, and created a series of small sculptures based on those twists. This piece is based on that initial investigation. Interwoven spirals mapped between the midpoints of the edges of each set of opposite faces on the dodecahedron create a beautiful and fascinating object. The apparent verticies are those of a truncated dodecahedron with pentagonal and trigular faces. Instructions Printed on a Replicator 2 at .3mm layer height there are a few undercuts that create stringy artifacts but the overall print quality is decent for the time. I enjoy the raw quaility of the final print with these settings for its imperfections which give a more natrualistic sense to the piece. I have not tried it with supports yet because I fear the result would be a mess, but if you feel like experimenting, give it a go. Using MakerWare, the slice takes a while with MiracleGrue, and it usually sticks around 82-84% for me for a while before taking off like a rocket and printing, so just let it run. The foot is only connected by a small amount of material so it snaps away easily after printing.