Tag: Kaleidocycles
AKA Flextangle, Flexahedron, Hexaflexagon
See general Flexagon category
A kaleidocycle is a flexible polyhedron connecting 6 tetrahedra (or disphenoids) on opposite edges into a cycle. If the faces of the disphenoids are equilateral triangles, it can be constructed from a stretched triangular tiling net with 4 triangles in one direction and an even number in the other direction.
Wallace Walker coined the word kaleidocycle in the 1950s from the Greek kalos (beautiful), eidos (form), and kyklos (ring).
In 1977 Doris Schattschneider and Wallace Walker published a book about them using M.C. Escher patterns.
The shape was called a flextangle by characters in the 2018 science fantasy adventure film A Wrinkle in Time(Disney film), which depicted a paper model with its inner faces colored with hearts and patterns which become hidden when those faces are folded together. The paper toy suggested how space and time could be folded to explain the magical travels of the story. The toy is given to the daughter by her father at the start of the movie and its hearts show how love can be enfolded and still be there, even after the father mysteriously disappears.
There are many tutorials for paper kaleidocycles but I wanted to make a fabric version. Here are a collection of posts of others making from fabric, wool, beads and more.
