Sharol Nau

My first attempts at creating small sculptures by folding the pages of recycled books were experimental. Mathematics came into play only after I had folded a set of encyclopedias. Being material conscious, I switched to novels constructed of higher quality paper with deckled edges. The resulting waves due to the series of folds were based on variations of a classical math problem, the so-called Paper Creasing Problem. More recently the waves are popping up from parabolic curves. Each page is folded to a common point, the focus, with the edge serving as the directrix. Thus the collection of folds forms an envelope to the parabola. The abounding waves emanate as the book is opened and spread out.