72 Pencils

These are based on a sculpture by George Hart called 72 pencils. https://georgehart.com/sculpture/pencils.html

These are great fun to make and amazing to look at and have around afterwards.

One of my pieces is made of pencils, one of cocktail sticks and the other kebab skewers!

Clarissa Grandi https://x.com/c0mplexnumber has made a blog post (https://www.artfulmaths.com/blog/hexastix ) on how to go about creating one of these sculptures, also known as Hexastix.

The post includes a link to the video by Matt Parker (@standupmaths)

Alejandro Erickson has also got some detailed instructions and pictures of some other variations.

You will need pencils (or sticks) hexagonal ones are better and elastic bands.  If you want to eventually remove the elastic bands you will also need glue. (i used superglue but you can use other types see Alejandro Erickson's instructions.)