Language
A Gorgeous 12

News

HomeHome / News / A Gorgeous 12
search
RECENT NEWS

Dec 18, 2023

The view from up there: Meet the fans who pack the Plainsman Parking Lot

Jun 03, 2023

Great spring for local honey bees

Apr 29, 2023

dining table set under 45000: Make Your Dining Experience Memorable With The Top 6 Dining Table Set Under 45000

May 03, 2023

Missing scoresheet leads to 50

Nov 07, 2023

11 Home Solutions To Help You Get Fully Organized This Fall

SEND YOUR INQUIRY
SUBMIT

Nov 28, 2023

A Gorgeous 12

Margaret Rhodes Ric Bell has an old notebook from 2012. Inside, among other

Margaret Rhodes

Ric Bell has an old notebook from 2012. Inside, among other scribbles and to-do lists, is a note he penned to himself: "Post a calendar on a 12-sided shape."

Bell, a designer who runs the London studio Post, doesn't remember why or how the idea occurred to him, only that he felt moved to, somehow, create a three-dimensional desktop calendar. Now he has: the DodeCal is a dodecahedron-shaped, Scandinavian-looking calendar made out of sycamore wood. It costs $96 (£79), and comes in a limited run of 100, for the year 2017.

DodeCal costs considerably more than a standard calendar in part because of the mental and physical labor that went into its creation. A regular dodecahedron has twelve equal pentagonal faces. This lends it a nice, uniform shape. But a calendar month, which follows a rectangular layout, would fit awkwardly on a five-sided face. So Bell opted to engrave his calendar on a rhombic-dodecahedron, which comprises 12 four-sided, diamond-shaped faces. "It is such a complicated shape," Bell says of the final, tilted arrangement.

Granted, rendering a rhombic-dodecahedron in AutoCAD, or even on paper, isn't terribly difficult. But crafting the wooden DodeCal---which relies on machine- and hand-crafted techniques---is a precise, multi-step process. For structural integrity's sake, each side can only vary a half-millimeter from the others. To perfect the fit and finish, Bell recruited two experts to help: a bespoke furniture maker who holds a degree in math and a second-generation toy maker. Their combined craftsmanship (plus plenty of trial and error) led to a geometric solution that could be replicated with the help of a CNC-milling machine.

First, Bell and his team join three pieces of wood to create a solid block. Next, they slice off 24 precisely measured, pyramid-shaped chunks of wood to produce a rough rhombic-dodecahedron shape. Lasers etch the gently italicized letters and digits onto each side, making the DodeCal an exceptionally attractive at-a-glance calendar---one you’ll likely wish could last into 2018.

Jeremy White

Emily Mullin

WIRED Staff

Will Knight