Kangaroo tessellation on a sidewalk, by Bruce Bilney Tessellations in real materials like folded paper, clay, wood, lego bricks, cookies... DIY goldfish tessellation folded papercraft octahedron

Real materials 30:
GOLDFISH TESSELLATION GIFT BOX


A do-it-yourself print-and-fold papercraft tessellation of goldfish on the exterior of a 6-sided platonic solid, a cube.
Makes a good gift box.



diy 12 fish tessellation paper cube
8.5x11" JPEG
Coloring Book Version
(That means "outlines only"-- you paint or draw the interior)
8.5x11" PDF
Coloring Book Version
(That means "outlines only"-- you paint or draw the interior)


Instructions:
  1. Download one of the patterns, in JPEG or PDF format. Print it out. Make sure that the printing hasn't changed the heigh-to-width proportions: all the squares must have equal sizes, and all their sides must be equal in length. If possible, print onto thick, stiff paper or light cardboard.

  2. These are coloring book style versions, so it's up to YOU to color and decorate all 12 of the goldfish (6 sides x 2 fish per side = 12 fish).

  3. Cut out the whole shape. Be sure that the decorated fish parts and the gray tab areas remain attached. Basically, cut along the outermost lines. The scissors icons show you where to cut. Notice that there are two ways to do this: in one way, you make a solid cube and leave all the small gray tabs attached. In the other way, you make a gift box that can be opened and closed: for that version, notice that 2 particular tabs must be cut off, and one specific tab will be larger than all the others & have no glue or tape on it.

  4. Fold the 2 big L shapes into 6 equal squares (3 per L shape) with their gray tabs bent down. Those gray tabs go under the squares, in the next step.

  5. Put double-sided tape or paste or glue on the top of the gray tab areas (except the big tab, if we're making a gift box). These tabs will all go under the sides that don't have tabs..

  6. Press the tabless sides onto the gray tab areas of neighboring squares. At first, it'll look like two 3-sided pyramids; then you'll fit the two pyramids together to make a box with 6 sides.

  7. You should end up with a solid-looking 6-sided paper sculpture that looks like a box. You should see 6 square sides and 12 seamlessly connected fish.

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