Ms. Amsler's Artroom

Icosahedrons

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

These 20-sided polyhedrons are constructed out of paper. We decorated white sheets of watercolor paper using a paste-paper technique: a method that involves texturing a mixture of clear paste and paint on the surface of paper using tools like forks, combs, or even your fingers. We created a circular template with which we traced twenty identical circles on our completed and dried paste-papers. Those circles were carefully cut, folded into equilateral triangular units, and glued together to make these finished forms. A true synthesis of geometry and art!

Important points of interest:

• Each student made their own circular template with a compass. The size of their original circle dictated the finished size of their icosahedrons. The variations in the Icosahedrons you see here are because each student’s circle was slightly different in size.
• To make an equilateral triangle that fit perfectly in each circle, we used the radius of the compass setting to mark around the circumference of the circle: It fits exactly 6 times— Connecting alternating marks made an equilateral triangle!