Bridges 2011 Regular Paper

Mad weave (anyam gila) is a type of basketry originating in Indonesian area. There is very little literature on the technique, and it is not widely used, but it produces a very pleasing fabric, with a symmetry (p6, or 632 in orbifold notation) that makes it suitable for the construction of polyhedra with triangular and hexagonal faces. Unlike baskets (which cannot be used if they have no opening) woven polyhedra are closed structures, and the weaving elements form closed loops. If the polyhedron is woven on the skew to the edges of the faces the weaving elements in general follow complicated paths that are difficult to predict, but on the tetrahedron they are quite straightforward. A skew mad weave tetrahedron with a non-trivial colour pattern is described.