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Modular Origami — Spiky Balls / Stars and Stellated Polyhedra

Models folded and photographed by Michał Kosmulski. Modules designed by their respective authors.
Click on images to enlarge them. Links in image titles lead to pages with more information about each particular object.

Spiked octahedron

Made from Sonobe module (12 modules).

3D cross (extended cube)

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Outdoor Origami Meeting Module (OOMM) (12 modules).

Octahedron - Pyramid Vertex Module (PVM)

Spiked octahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's PVM (Pyramid Vertex Module) (14 modules: 8 vertex units and 6 connector units).

Octahedron

Made from the sunken variant of Michał Kosmulski's PVM (Pyramid Vertex Module), inverted unit assembly (14 modules: 8 sunken vertex units and 6 connector units).
[ 3D image ]

Spiked octahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Simple Edge Unit (SEU), Sonobe-like variant made of square paper (24 modules).

This model demonstrates the rotated-link connection method. It requires twice as many units as regular Sonobe or SEU assembly, but each colored patch on the finished model can be a different color whereas in other connection methods, each colored patch shares its color with another adjacent patch.

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Nick Robinson's trimodule (30 modules).

Spiked icosahedron

Made from a variant of Sonobe module (30 modules).

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Simple Edge Unit (SEU), Sonobe-like variant made of square paper (30 modules).

This model demonstrates the SEU-link connection method: it is completely plain, without any decoration on the outside.

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Simple Edge Unit (SEU), Sonobe-like variant made of square paper (30 modules).

This model demonstrates the reversed-SEU linking method: a single crease is the unit's only visible decoration.

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Simple Edge Unit (SEU), Sonobe-like variant made of square paper (30 modules).

This model demonstrates the Sonobe-link connection method: the model is decorated with a pattern similar to the one found on models made from classical Sonobe unit.

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Sturdy Edge Module (StEM) used as a face unit (30 modules).

The unit is a variant of an edge unit; I call usage like this the “face variant” since the unit covers a face rather than an edge of the solid. When I invented the module, I though it was very original, but soon I learned it was actually pretty common and had been independently designed by many others before (it’s just a variant of the classic Ow’s edge unit). Dave Mitchell invented this “face configuration” (under the name Cube-Corner Star) as early as 1993.

[ discuss on flickr ]

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Moreno's unit (30 modules).

Originally I designed this as my custom unit, but later found out that it had been published before under the name of Moreno's Unit.

Chopin’s grand piano

This model is actually a spiked icosahedron.

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Outdoor Origami Meeting Module (OOMM) (30 modules).

Spiked and finned icosahedron

Made from Nick Robinson's trimodule (60 modules).
This is similar to the previous model, but apart from the spikes on all faces, the icosahedron also has "fins" placed on its edges.

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Robert Neale's penultimate module (60 modules).

Spiked icosahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Sturdy Edge Module (StEM) (60 modules).

The second picture shows the interior of the model against a strong backlight, displaying how the modules are connected in an X-ray view.

Spiked pentakis dodecahedron

Made from Sonobe module (60 modules).

There is one spike placed over two adjacent faces of the pentakisdodecahedron in this model. I haven't checked if the angles actually add up, so it might be that this model can only exist because of imprecise folding.

Spiked pentakis dodecahedron

Made from Michał Kosmulski's Simple Edge Unit (SEU), Sonobe-like variant made of square paper (60 modules).
Compare to the same solid made from another Sonobe variant (previous image on this page).
[ 3D image ]

Spiked icosidodecahedron

Made from Charles Esseltine's TSU module (60 modules).

Snub cube

Made from Tomoko Fuse's Little Turtle module (60 modules).

Spiked icosahedron

The structure of this model is similar to spiked icosahedra made with variants of the Sonobe unit and other similar modules. However, in the case of BBU a three-unit assembly is needed in place of each individual Sonobe unit, increasing the total number of units needed from 30 to 90.

Made from Michał Kosmulski's BBU (Building Block Unit) (90 modules: 30 × D2, 30 × A2, 30 × A4).