bowtie-open-frame-cumulated-truncated-icosahedron-1

One day more than a year ago, I thought to myself, "how could I make a soccer ball out of these 'bowtie motif' open frame units?" I figured I'd need to simulate the 20 required hexagons using six white triangles each. And the problematic pentagons? Five black triangles, right?

It was only halfway through the construction of this object that it became apparent that I was not making a soccer ball at all. Those black pentagonal pyramids happened to be the perfect caps to make the entire thing look like a gigantic icosahedron instead of the truncated isocahedron I had intended to make (hence the odd filename--it's cumulated and truncated! Sort of....)

A failed experiment to be sure, but as far as giant, 270-unit icosahedra go, I suppose it isn't bad.

By the way: the bowtie open frame unit variant is flimsy! The plain version is not only sturdier, but it is also capable of making both convex and concave edges, so that's what I use almost exclusively nowadays.