Origami Icosahedron

We made origami icosahedrons from 30 sheets of folded square paper.

As part of our creative hands-on math studies we have been studying icosahedrons. Icosahedrons are 20 sided three-dimensional solid figures. When the faces of solid figures protrude to form more complex solids, the shapes become star-like and are known as stellations. The icosahedron we created is the small triambic icosahedron, also known as the first stellation of the icosahedron.

This video tutorial on how to construct a small triambic icosahedron.

Thirty square sheets of paper are folded exactly the same way.

Then they are slid together in groups of five. The above photo shows the inside of five points of the stellated icosahedron.

This photo shows the outside of five points of the stellated icosahedron.

Assembled, twenty points protruded from the twenty faces of the icosahedron.

The same basic origami shape used to construct the icosahedron can be assembled in various ways to construct other figures as shown in the above video.

Here's a link to a similar Twenty-Point Origami Star Icosahedron.




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