Our Crafts
A selection of mathematical craft objects made by Maths Craft NZ team members. Click on the images for more information about each object. Instructions for many of these crafts can be found on our resources page.
A Level 1 Menger Sponge made from 72 Sonobe units. The sponge is 3-coloured, which means that units of the same colour are never beside each other (interlocked), although they may meet at a point. It took about 4 hours to complete, including planning the colouring. Made by Jeanette McLeod.
Started with 16 chain stitches and continued for 29 rows of double crochet. Increases were made every 5 stitches. The final row contains 3,165 stitches and is 12.66 metres long. The whole plane is made up of 18,910 stitches and over half a kilometre of yarn. It took about 9 months to complete (working sporadically). Made by Jeanette McLeod.
Started with 80 stitches of foundation single crochet, given a half twist and then joined to form a loop. Continued in double crochet until it measured 11.5cm in width. (Since there is only one continuous row when using this construction method, it doesn’t make sense to count rows.) It took about 3 hours to complete. Made by Jeanette McLeod.
A cube made from 6 Sonobe units, two of each colour. This cube is 3-coloured, which means that two units of the same colour are never beside each other (interlocked), though they may meet at a point. Made by Sarah Mark and Jeanette McLeod.
Two Colour Cubes, showing Latin squares, a small Ulam spiral, “string” art, a cellular automaton, and an “H” tessellation (Four-colour theorem hidden). Made by Sarah Mark.
This Miura fold pattern (Miura-ori) was invented by Japanese astrophysicist Koryo Miura while researching ways to compress aerospace structures (such as solar panels). It is a 'flat-foldable' pattern, which means that the sheet can be compressed along the folds until it is flat. It took about an hour to complete. Made by Jeanette McLeod.
Started with 16 chain stitches and continued for 100 rows of double crochet. It was then given a half twist and stitched together to form a Möbius strip. The whole scarf is made up of 1,600 stitches. It took about 3 hours to complete. Made by Jeanette McLeod.
A Level 1 Menger Sponge, made by the Maths Craft Team. This object consists of 20 cubes, each made from 6 business cards, for a total of 120 business cards. Cladding has been added to give the illusion of a higher level Menger Sponge. Made by the Maths Craft team.
A Möbius strip with one continuous strip of rainbow edging illustrating the single edge. The cut-out cats show that the orientation reverses as you traverse the strip. Made by Jeanette McLeod.
Started with 22 chain stitches and continued for 19 rows of double crochet. Increases were made every 4 stitches. The final (yellow) row contains 1,221 stitches and measures 3.05 metres in length (and used 32 metres of yarn). The whole plane is made up of 7,239 stitches. It took about 4 months to complete (working sporadically). Made by Jeanette McLeod.
A tessellation from Eric Gjerde’s book ‘Origami Tessellations’ which uses a square grid and 90- degree pleat intersections. It took about an hour to complete. Made by Jeanette McLeod.
Two Möbius Strips crocheted using different methods - the top as a continuous loop starting from the midline and working outwards, and the bottom as a long strip which was then twisted and joined together. Not that these two Möbius strips have opposite chirality (they twist in opposite directions). Made by Jeanette McLeod.
Two colour cubes showing cellular automata, “H” tessellations, a Latin square, and the four-colour theorem (Ulam spiral and “string” art hidden). Made by Sarah Mark.
Started with 12 chain stitches and continued for 19 rows of double crochet. Increases were made every 5 stitches. The final row contains 383 stitches and is 1.9 metres long. The whole plane is made up of 2,240 stitches. It took about 2 weeks to complete. Made by Jeanette McLeod.