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Geodesic dome inspired pi(e)

Happy Pi Day!








Trying to figure out what a pie shaped wedge of a geodesic dome (Buckyball) would look like inspired my Pi Day piece of pie papercraft.  What did it look like? It looked weird that's what--not like a piece of pie at all. I pitched that one right into the recycling bin.

I pursued the idea of making a piece of pie out of those equilateral triangles.  It seems like it would be straightforward, doesn't it?  But with all the pieces intersecting at 60 ° angles, on the first try...and the second...and the third...some of the components did not intersect as expected.  Prototype, prototype, prototype...and this is what came from it.







This project assembles relatively quickly!

How to make an equilateral triangle Pi Day piece of pie


Make It!

Click to download PDF file and print on two piece of white cardstock.


Optional: score the black lines to give the pie pieces a bit of  dimension, more like a geodesic dome.

Cut out pie filling (pink) and crust (brown).











Assemble pie filling:


Glue together point, using tab.








Flip the filling over and glue the under side together using long tab.





 Finished filling.  This is the under side.







Create crust:


Mountain fold and valley fold crust piece, as shown.

In the photo: the top crust is pointing toward the bottom of the photo and the bottom crust is pointing toward the top of the photo.  Eventually the crust will wrap around the filling starting at the pointed tip on the top of the piece of pie and ending at the point on the bottom of the piece of pie.


This is where you want to end up now, with the center folded together and glued with the tabs. 



As you hump up the middle, the glue tabs will rotate.  Stick them between the two layers in the center.  The green dots should meet.








The next photo shows the position of the tabs, inserted in the sides between the layers.  This is lots harder to describe than it is to do!  

You now have the top crust (at the bottom of the photo), the doubled over part representing the crimped outer edge of a piecrust, and the bottom crust (at the top of the photo).





Join the crust and filling:

Flip the filling so you are looking at the top side.  Adhere the top of the crust to the top of the pie filling.





Green dots to remind you that you are gluing top to top. The bottom of the crust is still loose.







Switching to side view, you can see the top crust is adhered to the filling, on the right of the photo. Bottom crust is loose, on the left.





Glue the adjacent crust tab under the tab of the filling at the side, rotating to match the corners indicated. Do this on both sides.





Looks like this when glued.







Swing the bottom crust under the filling.





Apply adhesive to the filling tab.  This is the same triangle you just glued the crust tab behind.





Adhered the loose crust tab on top of the filling tab.  Do this on both sides.





Flip the pie to work on the under side.

Apply adhesive to the filling and glue the bottom crust to the bottom of the filling.







All done!