Triskele Fun

From a post back in 2018, I got hooked on the idea of reverse engineering the geometry of a triskele. [thanks, @evansd2]. It’s easy to figure out how to generate the shapes, if you have any drafting experience. Since I need to get back my Illustrator skills, I decided to work it out in software.

I’ve put several of these together so far, and have two more waiting to be assembled. The earlier post suggested a paper weight of 80-100 lbs. I got a sheet of 80# paper and found it too resistant to being shaped due to the thickness of the sheet.

At a paper store, I showed the owner what I wanted to make, and she gave me several sheets to try out. I’m not sure what weight this paper is:

Lines were scored, teardrops were engraved.

Nice, but boring. I don’t have great hand graphics skill and don’t want to copy someone else’s work, so I thought I’d let the paper do the work:

This is from a papercrafting book of pattern papers I bought a few years ago. I didn’t know what to do with them back then, but I sure do now!

I get better as I go and they are fun to make. Now that I know just how to press and support the scores, I have no problems once I have the paper rings properly interlaced.

I know this design has been done a bunch before, but sometimes ‘old is new’. i’m going to make a bunch for friends for the holidays.

Edit: 2nd photo includes my cat, Sam, considering it as a cat toy. Too big, I think…and now I’m in trouble. I wonder how small i can make these…