Is there a role-playing game geek in your life? Surely they are familiar with
the mighty 12-sided die. I bet they'd like a similar
12-sided desk calendar that can be built from a paper print-out in a few minutes. And if you live in a brain-space containing neither dungeons nor dragons, you may still be relieved to find a free desk calendar for 2008.
Although this project has been around for a while, it's always good to remind people about it sometime around the New Year, as desirable calendars begin to become scarce in retail outlets. The site allows you to create a calendar for any year, choose one of a long list of languages (some eccentric: I chose Latin), decide whether the calendar's week should start on Sunday or Monday, and select a format for downloading and printing.
It's not difficult, but if you've never done this kind of paper-craft before, you might appreciate a nudge in the right direction. We have some basic tool and assembly suggestions for you after the break!
The file is a connected series of pentagons that have to be folded and glued into a 12-sided shape. For the best results, as with other projects of this type, you'll need:
- 1 sheet heavy paper (I used 65# cover-weight card stock)
- printer
- craft knife
- metal straight edge
- cutting mat
- glue (I like the Zig 2-way glue shown in the gallery)
- bone scorer/folder
- scrap paper
If you use the craft knife and straight edge, there are some obvious straight-line diagonals in the design that will allow you to do two or three cuts in a row. However, you can get away with materials that are a little more basic, like small, sharp scissors, if you need to. If you use scissors instead of a craft knife, you probably don't need a cutting mat.
I use Zig 2-way glue because it's in a pen that I can control easily, and because "2-way" refers to two states. It goes on liquid and pale, milky blue, and quickly becomes tacky, like the back of a Post-It Note. In this state, it's re-positionable. When it dries, it turns clear and the bond becomes permanent. It's also acid-free, and if you make a mistake, like overdoing it in a way that causes glue to seep out along the edge of a pentagon, you can usually roll the still-tacky glue off of the paper with your fingertips.
However, to get good flow from the pen, it sometimes needs to be pressed onto scrap paper. Because this project is three-dimensional, you won't be able to press down on most of the paper tabs in this project... making it oddly unsuited for drier glue sticks.
The paper won't stick well if there isn't enough glue on it, so while you shouldn't soak it so much that there's leakage around the place where a pentagon shape's edge connects to the fold of a tab, you also shouldn't skimp.
If you're bored with white card-stock, you might try a pastel color. Keep in mind that there's no way to get around Sundays being printed in red on this calendar: you'll want to choose a color that won't clash with it too badly.
There are several possible ways to assemble the dodecahedron correctly; as long as it goes together and November is the last pentagon to be glued down, you'll probably be fine. Here's how I did it:
- Cut on the solid lines. Your straight edge should be just on the lines. To make this go a little bit faster, look for obvious continuing lines: you may be able to cut off an edge on two or three different pentagons without repositioning the straight edge, though you will have to lift the craft knife between the cut areas. It's not important to be super-precise on the tabs, but any mistakes you make on the edges of the pentagons themselves will show on your final product.
- Score on the dotted lines. You'll want to line your straight edge up a millimeter or so to the side of the line you want to score, then press down with the tip of the scorer/folder. It doesn't hurt to go back and forth across the line several times. As with the cutting, look for continuous lines to score: you'll have to lift the scorer between the areas with dotted lines, but you won't have to reposition the straightedge. (Gallery image of model that has been cut out and scored on the folds.)
- Starting with the first half of the year, glue a tab to the underside of the month next to it, and work around the circle that way, with January at the top/center. Put the glue on the tab and press the tab to the back of the adjoining pentagon. Try to get the glue to go all the way out to the fold edge of the tab, where the edge of the pentagon meets it: this will give you tight edges on your finished calendar.
After a while, you should have the first half of the year in a bowl or hat shape, with a flower-shaped flat section hanging off of it when June and July connect. (Gallery image of model with completed first half.)
At this point, I chose to let everything dry for a while.
- Do the second section in the same manner as the first. (You might prefer to try to glue the second-section parts to first-section parts at this stage too; that's not how I did it, but I can't see it hurting. The only important rule is: do not glue anything to November. It's the only pentagon with no tabs on it.) (Gallery image of model with two completed halves.)
Again, taking a break to let the latest round of tabs dry for a while is a good idea.
- If you haven't glued the first and second section together, get to it. (Gallery image of two halves in the process of being glued together.)
At this point, you'll appreciate the benefit of the Leave November Alone plan: you have a way to get your hand inside the model, to position the tabs and pentagons. It's pretty easy to get them to stay where they should when you're only gluing one tab; not so much when it's two or more tabs. You can reach inside and press an interior tab with your forefinger while pressing from the outside with your thumb, pinching to form the bond (gallery image).
- November is last: a flap that you lower onto four glue tabs. My suggestion is to bend the tabs up slightly and use as much glue as you can without letting it seep out from under the pentagon around the edges, since there's no way for you to use your hand to make the pentagon really stick to the tabs.
- You're finished (gallery image of completed calendar). Display on your desk with the current month facing you and slightly upwards: it should have a flat edge on its top, two edges pointing down on its bottom. For example, the calendar uses November as its flat bottom when January is face up.
If you'd like to practice, or just don't want a calendar on your model, here's a pattern for a plain paper model of a dodecahedron.
If you're feeling even more ambitious, you can select the rhomboid version of the calendar, which uses four-sided diamond shapes instead of pentagons. It requires no glue, but it can't be printed on American letter paper, and it requires much more folding and assembly than the version shown here.
Either way, don't be surprised if you are beseiged with requests from friends and co-workers who see your splendid new desk accessory: if you build one of these, you may wind up building a few more (or passing along a few links to this post so people can make their own). I wound up giving my calendar to the first person I showed it to.
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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
This dodecahedron calendar was copywrited and sold commercially more than 60 years ago by a female New Yorker, a professional piano player whose name I don't recall.
ReplyI already tried to write this reply once, and it didn't go through... let's see if it works this time.
ReplyFirst of all, after writing this post, I was trying to remember where I'd seen the calendar generator for the first time. I didn't find that info, but I did find this link: http://www.mcuniverse.com/Calendar-Cube.787.0.html
People may be interested in it, because the woman who runs the page has taken the 2008 calendar and given it a bunch of different backgrounds: stone, grass, flowers, and so on. It's great for anyone who doesn't like the plain calendar. However, the designs mean that there will be ink on every surface of the model, so if you use them, you might want to use clear spray fixative on them (Aqua-Net hairspray will also work), letting it dry before you glue them. That should keep the glue from smudging the print.
The same site also links to this -- http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Normal/ProjPoly/Foldout/foldout.html -- which allows you to print a globe onto a number of different solid shapes, including a dodecahedron. However, the layout of the pentagons in this version couldn't be more different.