Clever assemble-yourself toys and models made with laser-cutters

Artifacture Studios is a maker shop based near Dallas, TX (I met the founders at a recent speaking gig at U Texas at Arlington) that does pretty amazing stuff with laser-cutters. They are probably best known for their laser-cut Eiffel Tower models, ornate models of the iconic building cut from stiff card that use cunning slot/tab fasteners that create a robust structure without glue or tape. They've also recently launched a 30-piece acrylic laser-cut puzzle called the "Frabjous" that uses interlocking tesselations of a polygon to form a great rhombic triacontahedron, "a self-intersecting polyhedron with thirty rhombic faces."

The Eiffel Tower model is ingeniously simple to assemble, the Frabjous is challenging and elegant.

Starting with a scan of the original plans by Gustav Eiffel, this was designed to have four identical pieces that tab into one another creating a 3D model without the use of glue, tape or fasteners. Laser cut from high quality soft-touch paper. Online instructional video provided to help with assembly...
Frabjous is a sculpture and geometric assembly puzzle made from dichroic acrylic. The swirling geometric form is composed of thirty identical pieces that catch and reflect the light in stunning fashion. Mathematically, the planes of the shape are the face planes of a "great rhombic triacontahedron," a self-intersecting polyhedron with thirty rhombic faces. But the puzzle piece is a carefully designed subset of the rhombus that doesn't intersect copies of itself. Weaving the parts through each other so each remains planar is trickier than it looks. Instructions are included.

Artifacture

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: gift guide • happy mutants • housewares • laser cutters • maker • puzzle • sculpture • texas

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cubby96

I could tell from the photo that was a George Hart design. I’ve wanted one (any) of his original pieces for years, but couldn’t afford the prices ($300+ for the same thing). This is fantastic, thanks!
emschelle

Lovely! make it bigger. I wanna put a lightbulb in it.
http://www.gyrofrog.com/ Gyrofrog

I call bullshit, I grew up in Arlington and *nothing* that interesting ever happened there.
Paul Renault

Is that Eifel Tower made from a few hundred laser-cut toothpick-shaped pieces?
gnomeworkspuzzles

Excellent design work! Isn’t it amazing what a laser can do? Too bad I don’t have all the time in the world to try and put one together.