Jorik's Ball

After years of folding origami pieces created by other artists, I finally decided to attempt my own design and created this ball which I've humbly named after myself. This ball is comprised of 90 relatively easy-to-fold units which are assembled without any glue or tape. You can change the colors based on your preference, but I used paper that is black on one side and white on the other. If you want to use a rainbow color scheme, I suggest using five different colors because the structure has pentagonal faces.

One really helpful tip that I have for anyone folding paper is to use a slightly flexible card to make creases (Check the video below as an example). This will make all of the folds as crisp as possible and keep both your fingers and fingernails in tact.

- 90 pieces of square paper (preferably 7cm x 7cm, but anything 5-10 will work well)

Before starting, it is important to understand what you are making. This model is based off of a regular dodecahedron, a Platonic Solid with twelve pentagonal faces. Knowing this will make the assembly super easy because you can just keep adding pentagons until you finish.

Start by folding the square in half, and then fold in the two sides. For my color scheme, I did 60 starting with the white side up and 30 starting with the black side up.

Now fold in the corners, making sure always to fold the top right to the bottom left. Then tuck in the fold under the flap. Do the same for the small leftover flap.

This simple fold is what makes the design completely unique, so make sure you don't forget about it!

Finally, turn around the unit and fold in the points. Then just squish it together and it's done.

Here is a list of color scheme options for the 90 units:

1. 60 black + 30 reverse black

2. Five different colors (18 each)

3. Six different colors (12 for each bright color and then 30 of a neutral color)

4. 90 of one color

5. Ninety different colors (this one might be kind of tricky to pull off)

To assemble these units, just tuck the pointy part into the opening of another unit. They become sturdy once they are assembled as a pyramid.

Start by putting together five black units to form a pentagon. Then add five white units around the outside to make it sturdy.

Continue by adding five pentagons around the first pentagon. Look back at the diagram for a reference if you are confused. It also helps to look at the inside to make sure everything looks right.

By now you've actually done more than half, and 6/12 pentagons are fully completed. Check the inside to make sure that everything looks right and then just keep doing what you've been doing.