Update: a tutorial for this kaleidocycle is available here!

Last week I finished my second beaded kaleidocycle – a half-closed decagonal kaleidocycle!

It’s made in a similar way to my last kaleidocycle, except that this time the tetrahedra aren’t regular – some of the sides are different lengths. I based the shape of them on a paper model of a half-closed decagonal kaleidocycle from www.korthalsaltes.com – an amazing website with lots of kaleidocycle models!

Here’s a video of it in action:

The “decagonal” part of the name means it’s made of ten tetrahedra, the “half-closed” part means that some the faces meet with no gap in the centre – or at least they’re supposed to! The beaded version ends up with small gaps in the centre of these faces since the beadwork tetrahedra are only an approximation of the exact shapes.

Using tetrahedra with different length sides means that the different faces you see as it turns are all different shapes – which is pretty neat!

The colours didn’t quite turn out how I expected them to, with one side of the kaleidocycle entirely blue – I designed the pattern on just one tetrahedra and didn’t quite manage to predict how it would all fit together. At least now I have a complete model that will help with the next one!

I’m very happy with with it as it is though – I was quite nervous as I was making it that it wouldn’t turn properly, so I’m very happy it rotates as it should! Definitely going to be making more of these!