It's Christmas time again, so I made my annual ornaments.

First, I got these snazzy new one-handed trigger-activated tape dispensers. Very cool. Figure out how many clicks you need for a certain piece, pull the tab, and you've got it!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/3...57c7002aa0.jpg

Once I've made the ornaments, I make a pretty box for them.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/126/3...c82f56788b.jpg

It's got cozy little compartments for each ornament.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/3...8c85216eeb.jpg

Here's the full view.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/157/3...4ef2c5cb4e.jpg

And the ornaments are ready to explore their new world...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/150/3...e0c434f055.jpg

Each ornament is an icosahedron (twenty equilateral triangle faces) with a pyramid on each face. There are two lengths of pyramid, and I put them together in different patterns on each ornament.

(You can click each picture for the flickr page.)

HM, you have outdone yourself once again.

They are lovely. They also give me a throbbing headache, when I consider the work involved. Good Work HM!

:lol: you are such a geek. (That's a compliment.)

Excellent, as usual. :thumb: No lights in these, I assume.

Thanks, all!

No, no lights. I need to figure out a good compact way to do it; the huge electronics control boxes were cool for experimentation, but they are really ungainly, and CAT5 cable is pretty unwieldy sticking out of one...

lightening bugs?

Nothing short of amazing, HM. Very impressive.

Very cool HM.
how about LED lights? You could incorporate a tiny wire into them and have that be the hanging wire. A transformer at the base of the tree would supply 12v DC to the entire tree (running wires up branches or using a conductive fake tree) the ornaments would be powered when they hung on the branches.

I have occasionally flirted with the idea of making a string of them, but haven't summoned up the courage to start. CVS recently came out with LED Chritmas lights, where the LED is shaped in such a way that it shines in all directions, and a transformer is supplied somehow (the package is much smaller than any transformer I've seen before). Perhaps at some point I'll cannibalize one of those strings and make my own.

Here's a new metal tape ball:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/4...68c34efa86.jpg

The "rivet" effect is from some snagging that happens in my cutter. It's sorta interesting.

Is that metal duct tape?

It's cool looking.

Silver? Stiff? Too bad that rivet effect isn't on all edges, it looks really cool. :thumbsup:

Yeah, it's duct tape that you could actually use on ducts... I was quite pleased to find it.

Yeah. I may try seeing how much I can manage. Maybe cut the tape into three strips, so both sides have it. No easy way to get it on the edges the tape actually crosses, though.

A bigger metal model:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/174/4...3601aab332.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/182/4...9a81006c34.jpg

Anaglyph! (Red Left Blue Right)
A larger size from the flickr page may work better.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/4...8b1e787ae4.jpg

It's amazing how different those stars look monotoned rather than the multi colored ones you've been building. I see patterns now that didn't show up on the others.
I guess with 12" wide tape you could build an emergency shelter, that wouldn't roll easily and had defensive spikes for bears. :tinfoil:

Heh, and some sort of hammock inside, 'cause it's a bit spiky in there, too.

I like 'em. The metal ones are a little softer looking.

Interesting... they're actually much harder and sharper, of course...

I wonder whether the lighting (outdoor for the spiky one) is part of that effect.

I think the tape ones look "crisper" like they take an edge well where you fold them, and then the panel part remains pretty flat. You see a bunch of individual triangles that together form a tape creation.

The metal seems more malleable or fluid and doesn't seem as flat in the panel part. Like it makes a crisp fold at the pointy edges, but then bends slightly between folds. It gives it a softer, more fluid feel.

This cropped picture from flicker shows an area that looks like a star shaped bowl to me rather than a group of individual triangles. Maybe it's the lighting. Maybe it's the metal that will bend into a shape and then retain that shape, instead of bouncing back like plastic. Either way, I like it.

Yeah, me too. And I think that's it. When pressing the outer layer in place, it somewhat smooths the edges, and the foil holds the shape. The cup shape is indeed much more obvious on this one. Though, as Bruce mentioned, it may also be in part due to the monochromicity.

A small one, but it's a new shape.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1330/...66c4324a09.jpg

Damn, this is frikkin' incredible stuff! I've heard references to your tape creations, HM, but I hadn't made it down to see any until just now. I'm astounded by your creativity and determination (to make so many triangles). I also know what your profile pic is all about, now. Bravo!

Thanks!

Another Christmas:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2130/...111715f18d.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2062/...c5dfe4d143.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2165/...b28ac499ec.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2067/...befe73e089.jpg

That last one has ten tiny little light bulbs intended for artificial flowers.

I like those. It's cool how the smaller ornament is nestled inside the larger one. I've seen glass ornaments with a similar style.

Thanks! I've done a few other nestled ornaments, but the reflective property of the foil tape adds something. Unfortunately, the opaque property means that the light is seldom as nice as a camera flash.

Whoa, those are neat. Are they a lot harder to do than the earlier ones?

Foil is harder, in that mistakes show much more obviously. This particular foil is still harder, in that, as actual duct repair tape, the glue is extremely strong, making mistakes much easier to make.

The shapes are no more complicated than anything I've done before, but the material's a challenge.

And I must confess that I positioned the pieces so as to not completely display how well I met that challenge.

HM, you need a hobby.
No, wait... you have one... nevermind.

Here are most of the balls I've made over the years. The ones that aren't on the tree or hanging from the chandelier.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2341/...fb6a3a9459.jpg

These are SO cool!

Thanks!

Hey Happy Monkey, you've been scarce lately.

Did you happen to see yesterday's Washington Post Express? In the Weekend Pass section, they had a picture of some artworks that looked exactly like your tape craft, but made of paper. Artist Denise Bookwalter is having a show at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring. Might be worth a look.

intellectual snowflakish? wtf is that?? lol

Interesting.

It looks like modular origami with patterns for cutout papercraft on each facet. One thing that comes to mind is that origami avoids cutting or gluing, while the patterns on the facets are designed to be cut out and glued together.

I'm not sure I get it, especially it's connection to aircraft (as per her website), but that may be why I consider my stuff craft, rather than art. I find it hard to consider it to have a message of any sort. Or, unfortunately, to grasp (or bring my own) meaning to someone else's.

I like them.

Oh, yes. I do like them, I just don't think I get them.

HM, yours are WAY cooler.

Thanks! :)

Are you working on anything now?

Yes, I'm working on this Christmas' batch. Photos after they are presented. ;)

Here are two of the three I made this year. They are both the same shape, but with different color schemes.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3086/...221bb325e4.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3288/...c270a5b4f0.jpg

You haven't lost your touch... super! :notworthy

One of these days, I'm gonna pick up my kid's math book from school and there - on the cover - will be a full size photo one of HM's Tape Creations.

Outstanding craftsmanship.

HM is way too patient and clever.

Very nice multiple light-sources photograph. Shows off the color scheme nicely.

Thanks, it worked a bit better on the second than the first. I may have to try again when I photograph the third one.

Here's another take on the first one:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3308/...b955937307.jpg

And here's the third one. It's similar to the other two in shape, but the concave pentagons are as wide as the convex ones, making hollow areas on each face of the dodecahedron.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3530/...ae9c3d0966.jpg

A tapecraft wedding present for my sister. It's a rhombic enneacontahedron with the diamond-shaped faces replaced by pyramids with equilateral triangles for faces:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2452/...42844a44_d.jpg

Very nice! It looks like a bunch of little five point stars linked together.

Thanks! There are 12 5-pointed stars, and where they meet they make 6-pointed stars. Each 5-pointed star has all five colors, and each 6-pointed star has three.

So fascinating! Beautiful work, there, HM.

Awesome. Fascinating. Really really clever.

That would be really awesome on a Christmas tree. Especially if you could figure out how to light it up from the inside.

Thanks!

I've done a few lit ones, but not recently.

Damn, that one's complex, I can't even get my head around how that goes together. :rollanim:

Happy Monkey,
I just saw that 3M is doing a contest for Scotch tape sculptures. Dude, this has you written all over it. You have to enter. Then we can all go there and vote for you. $5000 grand prize, and a case of tape.

http://www.offtherollcontest.com/main/home.aspx

part of the rules:

sounds a tad more heavy duty than HMs genre..... but it would be cool to say 'we knew him when'....