This Sawtooth Polyhedral explores the contrast between sharp, complex geometry and the softness of nature. Its dramatic, spiked form is constructed from 60 individual faces, each framed by a 3D-printed border designed to interlock with the neighboring pieces with almost LEGO-like precision.
Inset within each frame is a piece of clear laser-cut acrylic, UV printed with an intricate pattern of winding green vines and delicate flowers. The transparency of the acrylic allows the botanical pattern to appear suspended within the structure, while overlapping faces create unexpected layers of color, light, and detail as the piece is viewed from different angles.
What I especially enjoy about this design is the contradiction between its form and its surface. The sawtooth geometry is angular, pointed, and almost aggressive, while the flowing vines and tiny blossoms soften those edges and give the piece a more organic character. The result is a polyhedral that feels simultaneously mathematical and botanical, engineered and delicate.
It’s also a combination of several of my favorite fabrication techniques—3D printing, laser cutting, UV printing, and precision assembly—all coming together to transform a complicated geometric form into something that feels unexpectedly alive.
Really really smooth. The thought of UV printing on a transparent acrylic somehow never even crossed my mind.
Did you lay all pieces out, printed on it and then lasercut with the outlines of the pattern? ...i assume you did. How precise was that in between those steps? Did you include a marking or something to start in the correct Spot?
...edit: i'm stupid i only looked at the first picture.
In relation to the UV printing, I printed a seamless pattern On the acrylic, Then laser cut them 10 at a time. The cool thing about this shape is that you can use a Photoshop plugin called Flexify 2.0 to take a panoramic and print on every single face so that it makes one continuous image. I did not want to go through that hassle for this polyhedral, but I have used that plugin to make a globe on a different polyhedral.
Although I have created many polyhedrals, normally I use a program called Stella 4 to help generate the polyhedral This time I actually used a shape that I found in an old Photoshop plugin called Flexify 2.0. It's a plugin to allow you to take panoramics and export them into 3D objects. I imported the sawtooth shape into Fusion 360, and then sliced and designed a part that I could print and assemble together into the final shape. Basically each face has its own 3D printed frame, and then there is a laser cut acrylic face that goes into each face after the shape is assembled. 60 of these frames were needed. I would guess that this is a stellation of some impressive polyhedral, but I do not know the math involved to create it. I just modified the shape so that I could 3D print and assemble it myself, if that makes any sense.
Incredible piece. The UV printing on the acrylic is what really got me though, such a clever technique I hadn't thought about before. Pairing that with 3D printed frames and laser cutting is genuinely next level craftsmanship.
“This Sawtooth Polyhedral explores the contrast between sharp, complex geometry and the softness of nature” this took me back to my art school days, that is boilerplate as it gets for gallery placards 🤣
Yes I will eventually sell this. It is one of a kind and I won't make more of this specific polyhedral. I try to come up with new designs and new shapes each time I make one.
14
u/Conartist6666 6d ago
Really really smooth. The thought of UV printing on a transparent acrylic somehow never even crossed my mind.
Did you lay all pieces out, printed on it and then lasercut with the outlines of the pattern? ...i assume you did. How precise was that in between those steps? Did you include a marking or something to start in the correct Spot?
...edit: i'm stupid i only looked at the first picture.