My studio room where I build with LEGO bricks is a mess. I've been telling myself for almost a year now I would clean it up, but I have yet to do so. Today, I did make an effort, however.
On the main work table lies the remains of a huge geometric figure I had been trying to construct using hinged pieces. A few months ago I got it in my head to build an expanded "bucky-ball" (soccer ball shape). I'm quite fascinated with trying to build geometric shapes out of LEGO bricks which are not constrained by the usual rectangular paramenters of "the brick".
Getting the studs and hinges to all come together is quite tricky, however; and despite buying about $60 of hinges off Bricklink, I never got around to finishing the giant model (which would have been over 2 feet in diameter).
The weight of the thing made it very unstable unless it was complete, and, not being complete, it soon collapsed... adding more mess to my workroom.
So, back to today: when I sat down to finally start clearing off the tabletop, I got distracted by geometry again and decided that I'd use many of the hinges and triangles that I already had made to construct an object I knew would be quite straightforward.
An icosahedron (for all you non-geeks, that's a regular twenty sided polyhedron; one of the five basic Platonic Solids).
Within about 30 minutes, I had one assembled. Really, it's not much more than a skeletal frame of an icosahedron, but it still looks nifty.
I've been in a "20-sided mood" of late, constructing other icosahedrons mainly out of wood. In addition to just really liking the shape, I use the polyhedron to create various puzzles and games (some folks might recall that I had such a wooden puzzle at Brickfest this year). Since I was about 10 years old I knew how to cut and fold all the Platonic Solids from paper, but only recently have I started manufacturing some out of wood (finally paying attention to things like dihedral angles and the like).
Anyway... I'm sure I'll tackle the rest of the Solids (as well as many other shapes) in the near future (both with LEGO and other materials).
Actually, fellow LEGO builder, David Eaton, has already made a very nice regular dodecahedron (12-sided) from the bricks. I doubt I can improve upon his design.
Now... back to the house cleaning.
