How to Make a Hexagonal Prism Paper Weight

This is the Instructables for making a hexagonal prism paper weight. To get started on your cast you must first make a net. The net we are making will require a sheet of card, scissors, and a pencil. For the mold you will need tape, glue, a sheet of polypropylene or impact resistant plastic, scissors, a boxcutter, and a ruler (preferably the ones that are used when using a boxcutter. For the casting you will need just a bucket, water, a yogurt container, and plaster. Lastly you will need sand or abrasive paper and a box cutter for the final steps.

Scissors, A sheet of Card, Set square, Pencil, a sheet of polypropylene, a sheet of impact resistant plastic, box cutter, bucket, tape, water, and plaster, abrasive paper, sandpaper, and glue.

For the first step on the corner or area near the side of the card draw a trapezoid and draw a rectangular section of the card around the trapezoid.

Cut out the section of the card, fold the section at the trapezoids base, cut out the trapezoid and unfold the trapezoid to get the hexagon. This is done this way so the hexagon does not appear wonky.

Once you have the hexagon, measure its sides the rectangles accordingly. The length of the rectangles should be 15cm long. Feel free to draw patterns on your card if you want them to show on the design (optional).

For this step you will be using polypropylene or impact resistant plastic, and a box cutter for precise cuts. In this step you will just need to stick the nets on the polypropylene or plastic and cut them out. You can choose to draw designs on your card to cut out later if you choose but for this instructables I will be using polypropylene shards because I prefer them but if you want to cut out complex shapes and use them then thats also fine.

Take the card out of the cut out polypropylene or plastic and stick them on another side of the polypropylene of impact resistant plastic, you can use some of the left over material though to cut out some additional shapes, these shapes can be in the complex patterns you drew or they can just be random but either way you will need at 19 pieces for this design. Once you have them you can use tape to stick the rectangles onto its designated side of the hexagon and stick 3 shards onto each of the rectangles with one in the middle

For this part you must stick the your mold together with tape. Make sure that it is taped on the outside, you also have to make sure that there are no holes in the mold by covering them all with tape. After you have the mold it is recommended you use a bucket to make the plaster which is 2 parts water (you put this in first) and 3 parts plaster. It is recommended you use a yogurt container to measure out your ratios. You must mix it slowly and after it looks watery you can pour it into the mold. After this step you should put it in a place where it can dry undisturbed.

Once it has finished drying you will notice it has become cold, if the product is still hot you should wait for it to become cold because then it's a sign that plaster finished setting. If you product is cold and you are ready to start cutting it out, use a box knife and cut the mold off. You will notice the plaster stuck on the outside will come off too. Once you have done that take out your product and use a box cutter or ruler to carefully pick out the blue shapes that you stuck onto the mold previously, each will leave an imprint that will show the pattern you stuck on it. Once you've done this you are ready for the last step.

This is the final step in making a hexagonal paper weight. For this step you will use sandpaper and sand each of the sides, it is recommended you sand a little bit on the sides, too much and it might not look good. Try to refrain from sanding the sides with the patterning unless needed because it messes up the depth of the patterns. After this step feel free to congratulate yourself you've made it!