Math Craft Inspiration of the Week: The Intricate Sonobe Art of Meenakshi Mukerji

Last week Math Craft admin Cory Poole demonstrated how to make three of the platonic solids from Sonobe units: the cube, the octahedron, and the icosohedron; but where was the dodecahedron? I was pushed to find out how to make a sonobe dodecahedron from this beautiful picture (below) that Rachel Mansur posted on the corkboard.

I recognised this as a striped sonobe construction of a dodecahedron—pretty complex but not too bad, and I have written up instructions , which I will post in the next day or so. But trawling around the net led me to the site of the creator: Meenakshi Mukurji, whose site, MM Modular Mania, is a treasure trove of amazing modular origami.

The basic dodecahedron is still a challenge and difficult to get a nice finish, but it is when Meenakshi starts using extra colours and striped/patterned modules that his art becomes special.

Meenakshi 's work has beautiful colours so tightly and precisely folded that you struggle to see the joins. He calls this one the vortex, and although all the lines are straight it is difficult not to see the swirl!

But it is when he starts using two forms of sonobe; one to build main structure and the other to add decoration that they become gob-smacking!

I have only posted a tiny selection of the dodecahedra that Meenakshi has made. I would recommend a trip to his site and have a go at one of the models he gives instructions for. And finally here is my copy of Meenakshi's Jasmine Dodecahedron that I made up after reading Rachel's corkboard post (instructions to follow!).