Snowflake
Built by Brian Leach in June 2007 for the Natural World Secretary’s Challenge
A simple snowflake. Parts were a problem as it needs 6 times everything. Some rods give it a more 3D appearance.
The snowflake was taken partly from an Internet picture and I also looked at some cartoon pictures of snowflakes to get a more abstract idea of what a snowflake should look like. A lot of detail is missed out, but it can be good to add something characteristic. Near each of the 12 branches of the snowflake there are threaded pins. These represent a 60° change in the pattern of the crystalline structure and seem to work well. I also ran out of 6-hole wheel discs and used a different approach on three of the ‘spokes’ of the model. Snowflakes are not completely regular, so this oddly works.