DIY Cardboard Tensegrity Pen Holder!

As usual I'm way behind with any trend, but you may remember tensegrity tables were very popular a couple of years ago (!), and today I'm finally jumping on that trend - so I hope you (still) like it!

The concept is basically that the finished tabletop will look like it's floating, with only pieces of yarn or cord holding it up. It's a fun design and essentially the weight of the tabletop rests on one central cord and the other cords around the edge are there for balance only.

I don't personally need a table and woodwork is not my forte, so I thought about making a mini tensegrity table from cardboard instead, and then I decided to make it more useful by incorporating a pen holder.

The project only uses pretty basic supplies, so I hope you'll give it a go!

- Cardboard

- Mountboard/Matboard; this is basically a stiff white card and is often used as a border for art prints or photographs. You could use layers of regular cardboard instead, but using mat board makes it less bulky and more elegant.

- A clear, fast-drying glue; I used UHU all-purpose adhesive.

- Utility knife (& craft knife if you have one)

- Cutting mat

- Metal ruler

- Pencil & Marker pen

- Yarn (or string or cord); If you want more of an illusion, you could use clear fishing line or something similar instead - but you might need a superglue to hold that in place securely.

- Yarn Needle

- Paint & a Paintbrush (optional)

- Small clips

- An awl

- Paper

The first thing you need to do is draw out the paper templates. You will need:

- A 10cm x 10cm square with a 6cm x 6cm square cut out of the centre

- A 6cm x 6cm square

- And 9.5cm x 6cm rectangle

You'll also see in the photo a 10cm x 12cm rectangle with a diagram on it. This was just me planning out how the two 'U' shaped pieces will go together later. You don't need both 'U' shaped templates as they are both the same; you just need one. The dimensions for this 'U' are shown on the diagram, but in summary, one end is 10cm x 1.5cm, the other end is 6.5cm x 2cm, and the connecting (side) section is 9.5cm x 2cm long in total.

As long as you make the two U shapes the same size as each other, you don't need to make them exactly the same size as mine.

Then use this 'U' shape template to cut out 16 pieces of cardboard, all identical. Carefully use a utility knife, metal ruler and cutting mat to do this. A craft knife can come in handy if you want to be a bit more precise at the corners.

Once you've cut out all of those shapes, split them into 4 groups of 4 and glue them together into stacks.

Leave to dry.

Arrange two of the 'U' shape blocks how you want them to be positioned in relation to each other in the final pen holder.

Cut 2 lengths of yarn that are long enough to span the gap between the ends of cardboard in the centre, plus at least 6cm more at each end.

Unravel each end of the yarn, but don't unravel the yarn which will be on show.

Twist the yarn strands together for the visible part, then glue the unravelled sections to the top of the cardboard pieces, as shown.

Apply a generous amount of glue all over the top of these cardboard pieces and glue the other 2 'U' shaped blocks on top.

Leave to dry.

You don't need to do this, but I think it all looked a lot nicer with a mountboard covering, and it added strength too.

To start, it's easiest to cut strips of mountboard that are as wide as the depth of the cardboard 'U' shapes. Then cut these strips to length so that they can be used to cover every side of the blocks.

For the sides where the yarn is, you'll need to cut the board in half down the middle and glue these pieces either side.

You'll notice that I also shortened the central strand at this point to make the gaps more balanced.

Glue all of these strips into place and leave to dry.

It's best to wait until you've covered the sides with mountboard before cutting out the front and back. This is because you will need to take into consideration the thickness of the mountboard on the sides when doing this step.

So place the 'tensegrity block' (as I will now call it!) onto the board, draw around it and cut that shape out.

Do the same for the other side and then glue both pieces into place.

Use the 10cm x 10cm template now to cut out 1 square from mountboard. However, if - like me - you have added a mountboard covering to the tensegrity block, you'll need to add around 5mm to the the length and the width of this square first, to account for the added mountboard thickness. So my square of board was 10.5cm x 10.5cm

Use this square as a template to cut out 2 more identical pieces of board.

Then from one of these pieces, cut out a square in the centre just shy of 6cm x 6cm

Leave these squares to one side for now.

Then use the 9.5cm x 6cm template to cut out 4 pieces of cardboard, and use the 6cm x 6cm template to cut out 2 pieces of cardboard.

Glue the four 9.5cm x 6cm pieces of cardboard into 2 stacks of 2. Then glue the two 6cm x 6cm pieces together.

Glue these 3 stacks together, into a 'U' shape as shown, so that the larger pieces are on the outside of the small piece.

Once dry, put this 'U' shape onto a cardboard sheet, on its side, and draw around it.

Cut out 2 pieces this same size and glue them together. Repeat once more so that you'll end up with the 2 widest sides of the pen holder.

Glue these sides in place. Once dry you'll have a sturdy pen holder :)

Use the same method as before to cover the pen holder with mountboard.

Cut out 2 opposing sides first and glue them in place, then trace, cut out and glue the remaining 2 sides.

I also decided to paint the inside of the holder black, but that's optional.

Take 2 of your mountboard squares from earlier, including the one with a square cut out.

Place one on top of the other and make a hole (with an awl) in each corner, pushing the awl through both layers completely.

Be careful to support the corners of board as you do this, so that you don't bend or crease them as you push the awl through.

You then need 2 strands of yarn per corner of the solid square (i.e. 8 strands), and it's best to cut strands that are too long as you don't want to realise later that they're not long enough. I used 40cm lengths and that's really the minimum I would suggest.

Feed 2 strands at a time into a yarn needle, and feed this needle into one of the corner holes in the solid square.

You want approx. 5cm of the yarn strands on one side of this square, and then you need to unravel these sections of yarn and glue them onto the mountboard.

Then apply a generous amount of glue on this entire side of the square, and add the other solid square of mountboard on top. Make sure the squares are lined up, then use clips to hold them together or put something heavy on top until the glue dries.

I haven't shown it here, but you also need to glue the mountboard piece with the square cut out onto the top of the pen holder. You'll see the result of this in the next step.

With the mountboard square facing upwards (so that the yarn strands leave from the top), glue the tensegrity block to the centre. Place a weight on top until the glue dries.

Next, place the pen holder upside down on your table and glue the other side of the tensegrity block to the base. Again leave a weight on top.

Once the glue has dried, you will need to feed the strands of yarn leaving the base into a yarn needle, and then take this needle through the corresponding hole in the pen holder lip.

Then do you best to add clips to the yarn strands at the top so that they are all as equal in length as you can get them.

Place this entire piece the right way up and keep adjusting the clips until the pen holder is even and balanced.

Then twist these clips in one direction to twist the yarn strands together. Try and have them all twist roughly the same amount.

Use a pen to now mark the yarn strands where they now sit just above the mountboard top.

Remove the clips and knot the pairs of yarn strands together, trying to get the knot to sit where you just made the pen mark.

If everything is still even and balanced, you can now glue these knots in place and add another knot on top.

If it's a little wonky, you can twist the knots to tighten the yarn strands in order to balance everything out again. Then glue the knots in place.

Lastly, once you're happy with it you can cut off the excess yarn.

And that's it, you can now enjoy your pen holder!

It's actually a lot more sturdy than I imagined and can hold plenty of pens with no problem whatsoever.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable :)