First model in new eco-friendly product line, EarthBound SpaceCrafts, goes Open Source

The Playful Geometer has just finished designing a cut pattern for our newest product in development: a cardstock-only lantern designed to be illuminated with candle light.  We're toying with the name "EarthBound SpaceCrafts", as the intention is to produce a product that can be recycled, composted, or even offered up to "The Grand Geometer" in a ceremonial fire.  Even better, we've uploaded plans on how anyone with a home cutting machine can make their very own on instructables.com.

Thanks to a friend who re-sparked my interest in irregular tilings after the recent Nobel Prize Awarded to Quasicrystal discoverer Dan Shechtman, I saw a tiling of a pentagon and diamond for the first time in his info sheet here. 

I proceeded to reproduce this pattern, first sketched on paper and then more accurately with Inkscape drawing program.  I decided to share the results on Wikimedia Commons, the following results are now in the public domain:

Playing with the stroke width of both the diamond and the pentagon, converting the strokes to paths, and then performing some more complex operations on those paths led to a pattern that fit nicely inside the face of a Small Stellated Dodecahedron.  I applied the pattern to create a prototype in Blender seen here

with white areas indicating where the holes will be.  I'm quite excited to build this model, and I've got everything ready to test it out but its particularly  important that I take my time through the procedure this time.

This particular innovation was inspired by the recent discovery of Instructables.com's

Right now, The Playful Geometer is struggling to become a financially-sustainable business.  Our contour-cut Cosmic SpaceCrafts Lanterns are now a bit less time-consuming to construct but we've transferred most of the benefits of our mechanization to the customer by significantly decreasing the cost of models in hopes of increasing sales.

Despite handing out hundreds of promotional bookmarks at all the events we've decorated for this summer and putting up our new online web cart, we have not been getting the customer support we need to proceed with our ongoing developments. 

Demand suggests that The Playful Geometer needs to start mass-producing simpler paper models in the under $30 range that can be stocked in retail locations to compliment our online order digital designs.  Using the CraftRobo Pro to cut out every sheet individually is likely too time-consuming to achieve this.

With the Epilogue Zing laser cutter, The Playful Geometer could cut out many lantern panels at once, enabling us to affordably produce our EarthBound SpaceCrafts.  It would enable us to benefit more beings with the beauty of polyhedral geometry and the exhilaration or their construction.  We developed in hopes of serving environmentally-conscious consumers, and thus the needs of our planet earth.

It would also allow us to open up an entirely new range of productions.  Not only could we more safely produce our Crop Circle Mirrors as seen below without the use of caustic acid-etch chemicals, we could also engrave other materials like wood with these transformational images.


We could produce wood veneer lamps with elegant woodburn patterns on them as is the dream of artist Fiat Mihi.

We could provide affordable yet durable Phi Calipers for curious young Sacred Geometers (as in the model to the right) with instructions on how to explore the golden mean ratio using them.

We might even be able to invent and create a fold-up Dreamachine Making Kit.



To win the Instructables Epilogue contest, The Playful Geometer needs your help !   We need you to vote for our upcoming entry on instructables.com.  Check out the following link and if you like what you see, click on the "Vote" button in the upper right hand corner

Quasicrystal Star Lantern

 
Please help us spread the word, and may the merits of star light emanation benefit all beings !