www.treasureislandbooks.net website contents copyright 2006 & 2007 by Dale and Tess Wentz, dba Treasure Island Books unless otherwise noted All rights reserved |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Treasure Island Books Specializing in quality used and out-of-print books since the Twentieth Century |
www.treasureislandbooks.net website contents copyright 2006 & 2007 by Dale and Tess Wentz, dba Treasure Island Books unless otherwise noted All rights reserved |
| This blue ornament is a Pentagonal Hexecontahedron, made entirely of elongated pentagons each measuring 1" on the three short sides and 1-1/2 inches on the two long sides...I think! It is approximately 3-1/2 to 4 inches in diameter. (I can't remember if I gave this one as a gift or it's stored with our Christmas decorations, and I don't have any more of these pieces, so I can't measure it!) You really have to squint at this photo to make out on of the shapes. It took 60 of these pieces (which www.paperpieces.com call "jewels") to construct this. This ornament is trimmed with a variety of Czech glass and seed beads; the hanger is of seed beads. The fabric is a "quilter's quality" 100% cotton imprinted with a metallic silver design. It was "fussy-cut" in order for each pentagon to feature a star or swirl. Due to the size of this ornament, it had to be stuffed with polyester fibrefill to help keep its shape. |
| Here are six Christmas ornaments I made during the winter of 2006. I constructed each of them from fabric-covered precut pieces of index-card-weight paper I purchased from www.paperpieces.com. (They have a large variety of precut paper geometric shapes in various sizes ostensibly for making quilts and wall hangings using the English Paper Piecing method, although I learned from the owner that I'm not the only one who has tried this!) I didn't see ornaments like this made by other people in any publication; the idea just came to me. I've made several "quilty" pieces using precut geometric shapes and these were a natural outgrowth of those. These ornaments are all versions of polyhedrons and, while I'm FAR from being a math maven, I became fascinated with the geometry of them. I wondered how various shapes could be sewn together to get a sphere (or a close approximation of one). I tried using very small pieces...measuring 1/4" on a side...but I quickly found my fingers weren't nimble enough to manipulate them while sewing them together. I used 1/2" and 1" pieces and they were small enough! Some ornaments were more of a challenge to construct than others; it depended not only on the shape of the pieces but their size. Each paper piece was wrapped in 100% "quilter's quality" cotton fabric, usually "fussy-cut" to highlight a particular design element in the fabric. I experimented with basting the fabric to the paper, as is traditionally done when making a quilt using the English Paper Piecing method. I found this tedious and time-consuming, so I settled on using light touches of glue stick here and there; just enough to keep the fabric in place. It didn't matter if the fabric was permanently glued to the paper, since they'd never be separated...something that isn't true when English Paper-Piecing a quilt! After all the pieces were prepared, they were whip-stitched together using a lightweight nylon thread. I chose it because it didn't show up as obviously as a typical sewing thread would. Each half of the sphere was sewn inside-out, then turned right side-out and embellished with glass seed and other small beads at the intersections of each piece. I found out the hard way that it was easier to do it in this manner than to try to embellish the completed ornament! Any fringes or dangling embellishments were added at this point as well. Whip-stitching the two halves together proved the most challenging, especially as the gap between them closed. Often the fringy bits would get in the way. Completing the "intersection" bead embellishment after that was tricky, too. Some of these were stuffed with polyester fibrefill in order to help them keep their shape. I wish I'd thought of that initially but I'd already made a few before I realized it might help! They're easily crushable and I had to make certain when I packed them away in the Christmas decorations they were in a non-squishable container! As for knowing how many of each size piece I would need to construct a sphere, I turned to the Internet and found several sites which discussed polyhedra. One, www.ibiblio.org/e-notes/3Dapp/Convex.htm, has interactive polyhedra that one can "turn" with the mouse to see all sides. Very cool! Terms such as "Platonic solids," "Archimedean solids," and "Catalan solids" were bandied about these sites as if the authors really understood what it all meant! My apologies for the rank amateur photography. Space is at a premium here in our house and I wound up having to suspend the ornaments from a broom handle which itself was suspended between bookshelves (of which we have MANY, for obvious reasons). I've yet to master our digital camera and, believe me, these are pretty good considering how my photos usually turn out! |
| POLYHEDRON CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS |
| This silver ornament is an Icosidodecahedron (an Archimedean solid) constructed of true pentagons and equilateral triangles; 12 of the first and 20 of the latter. Each piece measures 1 inch on a side. The fabrics are "quilter's quality" 100% cotton imprinted with metallic silver designs. The triangles were fussy-cut to feature the stars. It's embellished with glass Czech, seed, and bugle beads, glass hearts, and a silver metallic cross (which, unfortunately, isn't showing up in this photo). This was a gift for my dear mother-in-law. |
| This silver and blue ornament is also an Icosidodecahedron (an Archimedean solid) constructed of true pentagons and equilateral triangles; 12 of the first and 20 of the latter. Each piece measures 1 inch on a side. The fabrics are "quilter's quality" 100% cotton imprinted with metallic silver designs. The pentagons were fussy-cut to feature the snowflakes. It's embellished with glass Czech glass and seed beads, a blue Czech glass star, and a silver metallic angel I gave a glass halo (which, unfortunately, isn't showing up in this photo). This was a gift for my friend, Beth, an award-winning quilter. |
| This green and gold ornament is another Icosidodecahedron (an Archimedean solid) constructed of true pentagons and equilateral triangles; 12 of the first and 20 of the latter. Each piece measures 1 inch on a side. The fabrics are "quilter's quality" 100% cotton imprinted with metallic gold designs. The pentagons were fussy-cut to feature the leaves in the middle of swirls and the poinsettias. It's embellished with glass Czech glass and seed beads, and a green Czech glass star. I kept this one because my favorite color is green. |
| This all-burgundy ornament is a Dodecahedron (a Platonic solid) constructed entirely of 12 true pentagons. Each piece measures 1 inch on a side. The fabrics are "quilter's quality" 100% cotton imprinted with metallic gold designs. The pentagons were fussy-cut to feature the stars. It's embellished with glass Czech glass and seed beads. I kept this one because it was the first one I made. |
| This burgundy and paisley ornament is another Icosidodecahedron (an Archimedean solid) constructed of true pentagons and equilateral triangles; 12 of the first and 20 of the latter. Each piece measures 1 inch on a side. The fabrics are "quilter's quality" 100% cotton imprinted with metallic gold designs. The pentagons were fussy-cut to feature the stars and the triangles were fussy-cut to feature a paisley design element. It's embellished with glass Czech glass and seed beads, gold metallic hearts, a gold Czech glass star, a gold Czech glass swirl, and a fire-polished bicone crystal. I just loved this one and had to keep it! |
| These were oodles of fun to do and, if I have time later this year, I'll probably be making more for this Christmas! If I do, I'll post pictures of them here. |
| All photographs on this page copyright 2006 by Dale and Tess Wentz. All rights reserved. |