How to Make Shapes Out of Buckyballs

Sphere

• 1

  Form a single strand of balls.

• 2

  Break off nine balls, and attach the two ends to form a ring.

• 3

  Transform the ring into a triangle. Pinch three of the balls in the circle together with your thumb and forefinger, forming a point. The circle now looks like a teardrop. Holding the point in place, push the rounded end of the teardrop inward, forming two new points. This completes the triangle.

• 4

  Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you have 20 triangles. This will not require the entire strand of balls.

• 5

  Select five triangles. Snap a pointed end of each triangle together. Use the pointed ends that attract (not repel) one another. The sides will naturally snap together, and the resulting shape will look like a hexagon with one side missing.

• 6

  Close the gap in the hexagon by joining the sides of the two triangles that are unconnected. This forms a three-dimensional figure that looks like a raised pentagon.

• 7

  Select five more triangles. Snap a flat side of each triangle to a flat side on the perimeter of the pentagon shape you made in Steps 4 and 5. Use the flat sides that attract rather than repel. The resulting shape should look like a five-pointed flower.

• 8

  Repeat Steps 5 through 6 to form a second flower-like shape.

• 9

  Intertwine the "petals" on both flowers to make a sphere. Do this by snapping a petal from one flower between two petals of another flower, continuing around until all the petals are interlocked.

Pyramid

• 10

  Form a single strand of balls.

• 11

  Break off nine balls, and attach the two ends to form a ring.

• 12

  Transform the ring into a triangle. Pinch three of the balls in the circle together with your thumb and forefinger, forming a point. The circle now looks like a teardrop. Holding the point in place, push the rounded end of the teardrop inward, forming two new points. This completes the triangle.

• 13

  Repeat Steps 2 through 3 until you have 16 triangles total. This will not require the entire strand of balls.

• 14

  Select four triangles, and snap them together to form a larger triangle. Do this by snapping three of the triangles together side-by-side in this pattern: pointed side up, pointed side down, pointed side up. This forms a base for the larger triangle. Snap the remaining triangle, pointed side up, above the middle triangle of the base.

• 15

  Repeat Step 5 three more times for a total of four large triangles.

• 16

  Snap the four triangles together to form one large triangle. Do this by snapping three triangles together side-by-side in the following pattern: pointed side up, pointed side down, pointed side up. Snap the remaining triangle, pointed side up, above the middle triangle of the base.

• 17

  Bring the three points of the triangle together, by bringing them upward and inward, forming a three-dimensional figure. By snapping the points together, the sides will naturally snap together. When all the points and sides snaps together successfully, the result is a four-sided pyramid.