Andrea Hawksley
I enjoy finding and creating mathematical patterns in the everyday. There are few things more ordinary than a sheet of paper, so I have often found myself drawn to origami, the art of paper-folding.
Unukalhai is composed of 60 rectangular sheets of paper. The sheets are folded and connected using origami techniques to form 20 3-pronged faces. Each face can be thought of as a subsection of a small triambic icosahedron, chosen such that the model can be joined together without self-intersection.
This model was made out of five colors of paper to highlight the natural five-coloring of the icosahedron.
Tania Australis and Unukalhai are members of a series of modular origami models. They represent Star Polyhedra in a 'topological' manner that emphasizes the internal connectedness of these self-intersecting figures.
Tania Australis is composed of 30 identical 'S' shaped pieces that each represent one face of a Great Rhombic Triacontahedron. Its design was inspired by George Hart's Frabjous sculpture. Tania Australis is complemented by Tania Borealis (not displayed), also composed of 30 'S' shaped pieces, but this time put together in the shape of a Medial Rhombic Triacontahedron.