I start with a prototype ►

(13 Second video)

At this stage it started to solidify as a letter press project.

Next up I ordered printing plates.

◄ This is a Kaleidocycle

I learned about kaleidocycles while I was in a math class for artists and designers. From Wikipedia, it is ‘a flexible polyhedron connecting 6 tetrahedra on opposite edges into a cycle.’ I had been making a bunch of these with various designs all through my senior year of school and I loved the form of it. To have something tactile in my hands was to really learn something. I’m deeply interested in space and our connection to it so I wanted to develop these into an engaging experience where these interests intersected.

I found a template and developed art for it based on open source images from the Hubble telescope as well as my own inspiration. I made Titan (a moon of Saturn) into an eye based on the Vonnegut book ‘The Eyes of Titan’. I tried putting all the moons that each planet has with it, in it’s triangle but most planets just have to many moons. I was able to do Earth and Mars just find though.

For each color to work on black, I placed down a white ink trapping that would be left uncovered for small moons and the Voyager 1 satellite. Everything else would be covered in their intended color. I would do 9 ink runs in all! BUT I hit a snag. In the image on the left you can see the folds are not lining up as expected. Something was wrong with the template . . .

Here’s a comparison to the prototype ►

Here is the ink layering process below. I let the ink dry for 24 hours or more between each run, taking about two weeks total to get all 9 runs done.

Still having some problems here ►

Solving the template issue meant getting a completely new one and the fall lines meant some planets would not live in a single triangle anymore. Using tracing paper and an accurate, working template I realigned the design for the folds to work.