click on the photo above to see a video demonstration of these stars by James Kostick
folding 6-axis and tetraxis stars made of bronze wire
9-axis stars, glass star on a bronze star base
John’s earlier work in geometric and synergetic structures led to numerous original designs that he handcrafted and marketed in the mid 1960’s and 70’s.
On this page are a few photos of a sampling of the work, which John continues to do only on occasion. The folding features of some of these designs can be seen by clicking the links to video clips. A particularly good one to watch is the folding space.
The configuration of sticks in each star is identical.
folding space
A defining feature of John’s woven stars is that each axis and each wire within each axis relates to the overall object in exactly the same way. For a detailed description of these structures, read the patent papers here.
The larger star shown above is a 6-axis star. It has 12 points, which are located at the vertices of an icosahedron. The object is made of 30 wires in 6 bundles of 5. Somehow, one of these stars made its way to being a prominent prop on the MIT math professor’s desk in the movie Good Will Hunting!
The smaller star shown above has four axes and is called a tetraxis star. The eight tips are located at the vertices of a cube. Each axis is made up of 3 wires that bypass the wires in each of the other 3 axes. To see the tetraxis star structure made out of wood, click here. A glass version is shown below, to the right of a 3-axis glass star. A wooden 3-axis in the shape of a triacontahedron can be seen here.
These things are hard to capture in still photos. The moving images below make it easier to see what’s going on.
A 3-axis and a 6-axis and a 10-axis (which contains the 4-axis) all intertwined and surrounded by a folding space make a space compass:
Analogous to these stars is the 10-axis star, whose tips relate to the vertices of a dodecahedron:
Fuse a 10-axis star with a 6-axis star to get a 16-axis star:
Ten interwoven 6-pointed stars:
The folding space is made out of 24 interwoven stainless steel rings that collapse down to what appears to be nothing more than a roll of wire. For a demonstration click on the photo below.
John in his workshop in Roxbury, MA, April 1967
More pictures will be added later.
To get an idea of how John came up with this design, look at the star that he is holding in the old photograph at the very top of this page. Continuing those curved wires around full circle is how he discovered this woven star, whose folding properties he hadn’t actually anticipated.