My gift for Gathering For Gardner 12 was a set of 12 specially marked business cards that can be used to assemble a rhombicuboctahedron. The final construction looks like this:
I first came up with this design a few years ago after I was handed a large pile of old business cards and gave myself the challenge of creating modular origami models of all of the Archimedean solids. As I noted in my post at the time, “I wouldn’t be surprised if some (or even all) of these designs were examples of parallel invention, but I haven’t seen any of them elsewhere as yet, and I certainly had a fun time coming up with and building them, which is probably the important part”.
It is possible to put this together without tape or glue, but it isn’t super easy. You may find it easier to add temporary or permanent tape as you go if you don’t mind “cheating”.
If you want to treat this construction as a puzzle, you should probably stop reading here.
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How to make your own business card rhombicuboctahedron
- Fold all 12 cards as indicated. (If you want to use unmarked cards, see folding directions at bottom)
- Groups of three cards go together like this
- Groups of four cards go together like this
- If you are trying to make this without tape or glue assistance, I recommend starting with a group of four cards held in your non-dominant hand
- Add cards around as in the next several images
- The last piece is the most difficult to add (you might have to force it a bit), but the entire structure should stay together once it has been added
- Don’t forget to put your pieces together in a nice color scheme!
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Folding modules from arbitrary cards (Pictorial Instructions)
These instructions show the easy way to fold modules. These modules are not centered, but the technique for centering the module if necessary to match with the card design should be straightforward.
