PlySplit cubes (I thought I would have finished this by now)

tetra-thing: fourcubes attatched to center cube at alternate corners

tetra-thing: ribbon path A pass from one corner on inner cube round sides of three adjacent cubes paths A’ occur on the four cube and don’ intersect the first three.

a cube made from two sets of paths: ends are tucked into edges. L shaped patches are a bug.

three sets of cords threaded through each other to be pulled tight

a corner pulled tight, add extra sets of cords to make up the other quarters of a face

two corners joining: the diapers at top and bottom are the intersection of one cube and another

three corners: hole in centre is one corner: rim alternates corner holes and part last three sides

work in process: too many picks make the work very fiddly: this is the nearest you can get to 4D plysplitting

inner cube and one outer cube: tassels are cords from inner cube, beginnings/ends of A’ paths fall in the middle of a face rather than an edge so that you get checker effect rather than L

Columbus cubes

For someone who only got a D in their applied Maths A-level I’ve always been fascinated by geometry, topology and mathematical curiosites.

This little pamphlet from part of a Tarquin publications book is all that remains of my first foray into the world of rotating rings and hypercubes.

magic cubes, flexisquares, spherical geometry

Shiny (not new) toy — Ply-spliting

I was introduced to This technique over ten years ago at an exhibition in Bampton Oxfordshire and attended two, one week courses over the next couple of years. I’ve already posted pictures of some of my work. I’d like to do more, but I’m hampered by the difficulty making cords to split. Recently I’ve been using strands from the core of old climbing ropes. It’s three ply and rather slippery, so a little different from the usual cords.
I was reminded of the potential of ply-splitting again at the conference. My teacher was there with all her samples and some of her books. They are very different from Collingwood’s books: full of bright, well annotated photo-diagrams. I do have Collingwood’s ply splitting book just not to hand.
You don’t need these books, she said, you all ready have a good grasp of the basics. I have a terrible memory I countered, they are useful as an aid memoir.You’ll like this book

With my assistant helping with the composition of the shot.

t’s got maths in. So I did and I do. Modern Western ply spliting grew out of interest in and analysis of traditional materials from Rajasthan. Various practitioners have taken the technique in wide variety of different directions. Once I had got my head around David’s diagrams and explanations I wanted to take (certain parts) his work further. Have patience.

Baby steps I tell myself.
Here’s the start of a little dish to remind myself about adding new sets of cords as you increase the radius. I’ll run out of new cords very soon so it will start to grow tall, then I’ll run out of cords all together. I like this start as you can see where all the cords are going.

Oblique POT in sets of six added after blue centre cords cross

I promise I’ll finish this nicely and post a picture.

MER