Paper Voxel Sphere

Hello again! I couldn't get this idea out of my head. I needed to see if it was possible to do a more complex shape than the 3D Paper Cross I made last week. The results give a much more striking paper model but it's not for the faint of heart. There's a lot more cutting, there are a lot more folds and a lot more tabs for gluing. As a result it took me a lot more time, about seven or eight hours. The 3D Paper Cross is much easier and quicker I recommend you start there and if you're still hungry for more then tackle this one ;)

Cardstock

Pritt Stick

Ruler, Pencil, Craftknife

As mentioned before in the 3D Paper Cross, I was inspired by the work of makeanything.design. Great stuff if you're into 3D printing. They had made a "Voxelized Skull" but I hadn't heard of the word voxelize before. To over simplify things let's just say it's like a 3D version of a pixel. Maybe it's become more of a house hold term what with half the world either playing Minecraft or tinkering on their 3D printers. But what do I know? I just remember being blown away as a kid whenever I saw giant Lego sculptures made of Lego blocks and that goes back before the digital age.

If you want to try it you can voxelize 3D shapes at the touch of a button in TinkerCad but there's minimal control over the amount of cubes that get put into the composition. Also check out this other really cool site that can generate spheres for Minecraft folk. However our main concern here is to make a voxelized sphere from paper.

I couldn't find any voxel sphere on-line small enough to work from. I didn't want too many voxels or I would have gone crazy! In the end I just used TinkerCad to build a virtual model for me so I could see how it would look before deciding to go ahead with the build. It turned FANTASTIC! If anyone needs a little baby sphere in the big world of Minecraft here you go. It even has a small section of tumbling blocks in the corners which is that nice detail of voxelizing that I wanted to achieve.

Lastly, I knew I could follow the basic construction technique I used in the 3D Paper Cross: Strips of the same color running in the same direction, weave the strips around one another to get the right colored faces in the right places, glue all tabs on the inside.

The little cubes measure two cms. So everything on the paper was two cms. The small strips are 2 cms wide. The little squares are all two cms.

Draw out the shapes as you see here. If the lines are drawn heavily the pencil line will help you fold the pieces accurately. And don't forget to leave extra for the tabs at the ends

You will need six of these large shapes of six different colors

And twelve of these small strips of six different colors (x 2 equals 12)

That's all! I find the drawing and cutting to be long and tedious. Be patient, do a neat job and you won't have any problems

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph any of the large pieces with the folds before I started gluing them together. Here is the best photo I have to show how they get folded.

It also helps a lot if you taper the tabs. I didn't do it at first but then I realized it helps insert the tabs in through the slots where they need to go when things start getting tight!

Its best you look at these pictures from a PC or a tablet if you can. I've put notes on them to help you along but they don't seem to show up on a smartphone.

Photo 1: I've tried to put markings on this first photo to illustrate the position and orientation of the large pieces and strips The RED lines show the one large piece in position. The BLUE lines show the two small strips flanking the large piece. The YELLOW dots represent the faces that are visible. The PURPLE X's are the faces that get covered up by other pieces. The ARROWS show the orientation of the large pieces

Photo 2: The yellow piece runs east to west, the orange piece runs north to south. One small orange strip is here too.

Photo 3: In this photograph the Red piece has been added and runs north-west to south-east at the bottom of the shot. The small yellow strip and the small red strip are also here in their positions and EVERYTHING IS WOVEN AROUND EACH OTHER. This is important because basically that's what you're doing the whole time: passing the strips above and below each other in order to get them in the right place.

Photo 4: Shows a view of the same area from the inside.

Photo 5: To apply the glue I used off cuts of cardstock. I got the 3D paper cross very messy with glue stains so this time I decided to keep the whole model cleaner.

Add the blue piece directly opposite the orange piece and running in the same direction as the orange piece. In the photo here, they are both running north to south although the longer bits are just hanging in all directions :))

The Green piece goes in next but I've no shots of this but if you've managed to get this far you will have gotten the hang of it by now.

Yeah I don't know if I can tell you anymore just keep putting the pieces in the right places and gluing the tabs. There are 60 tabs in total. TAKE YOUR TIME. For one reason you won't make mistakes and another is that the pritt stick glue will be curing slowly so if you're rushing through to gluing the next pieces the whole thing could fall apart! (I'm exaggerating).

Here in the first shot, the purple piece is already glued to the orange piece and lying down looking very relaxed!

Photo 2: Same instance only viewed from the outside

Photo 3: One of the small Purple strips is in place

Photos4-6: The weaving process to put all the colored faces in the right places

In the beginning its: more pieces and gluing less tabs. But by the end it's: less pieces and gluing more tabs!

By the time you have worked your way to the end there is no space for maneuvering and no visibility. All along I was applying the glue with a bit of extra paper but in the end I needed to put it directly on from my finger. That way I was at least able to feel the tabs and I could tell I was in the right place. But do a "Dry Run" with your finger first so that you are awar of the feel of it. Then go back and do it again with the glue on your finger.

On the very very last tabs to glue I just had to do them from you outside. I slipped the glue through on a waste strip of paper applied a bit of pressure and tidied up the excess glue right away.

It's a great achievement to finish this paper model. If you can manage it following my humble instructable give yourself a pat on the back :))

Thoughts:

If you have no experience with paper craft be sure to start off with the 3D Paper Cross

Enlarge the whole thing 50% especially if you have big hands.

I'm thinking, but I'm not sure, you could narrow the pieces ever so slightly by 0.5 mm (1/64"). So that the square units of the paper pieces would all be slightly longer in the length and narrower in the width. This MIGHT aid in the weaving process

Can you make this paper model all in one color? Yes. I'm sure it would look amazing but the different colors help you understand which piece is which and therefore where does it need to go.

I'm not done yet with this idea. I'll have more instructables in the future with the same theme. So watch this space!