Clay Koch Snowflake

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories wrote a thing on how to make a Sierpinski triangle out of fimo (or other) clay. I liked it a lot and made a few, which turned out so-so. They also asked what other fractals could be made this way. I experimented a bit and think I've found a reasonable way to make a Koch Snowflake.

This run didn't turn out terribly well. I was using Sculpey clay that's been laying in my drawer for several years colored with food coloring. The food coloring didn't take too well, nor show up in pictures well. The clay itself gets very non-pliable and prone to cracking if left alone for a while after working it into decent shape. It's not a good material for the job, but very cheap (and in my case on hand already). I also have very modest skills in handling any kind of clay. Still, I'm writing it up because I feel the theory is sound and I know myself well enough to know that I won't be getting around to getting better materials or more time. I do so hoping perhaps someone else with more materials, time, patience and skill would care to elaborate/rewrite/expand on this.

Update: Evil Mad Scientist has an alternative write up now with more pro-looking pictures and illustrations using food items, if contemplating making this checking it out would be a good idea.

Step 1: Theory

After some sketching, I realized that several equilateral triangles could be assembled into a shape similar to itself in such a manner that if it was done again, it would converge on one side of a Koch Snowflake. The image speaks for itself kind of (excuse the not-so-3117 photoshop skills) - a dark colored triangle is placed in the center and four more (combined into opposite facing parallelograms) are stacked on the outside. A twice as wide triangle is then stacked on top, making the whole thing into a triangle that can be reduced and reused in the same manner again.

Comments

[oskay]

Thanks again for writing this article! We've published a similar article on EvilMadScientist this morning and linked back to here.

[LarrySDonald]

You're welcome and thanks for writing a more understandable version of the method.

[GorillazMiko]

Cool Instructable! I agree totally with oskay, this is a very (and I mean very) clever design, and a nice job! +1 rating, it's amazing!

[oskay]

Hey, very clever design and nice job! (Might help to use a darker color for more contrast next time?) I was thinking about this particular shape-- I was wondering if it might be possible to do it with the same process, so that's really great that you figured out the algorithm for it! -Windell

[LarrySDonald]

Thanks. I'm sure on the darker color that would help a lot, as would better clay. I was standing around looking at $10 of crayola or fibo and decided it probably wasn't what I needed so spend on, which says something about the budget around my place (the normal "raising a family" shoestring deal). Hope you or someone else can get some fun out of it.