Katherine Seaton
I am a mathematician, university lecturer and some-time fiber artist.
I delight in the mathematics that can be experienced in the
construction, by hand, of pieces of knitting, crochet and embroidery,
and in the thought that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers
constructed mathematics this way, too. I frequently, but not
exclusively, use recycled or remnant materials. Sashiko is a stitching
technique born of frugality. Its domestic origin, together with its
geometry and symmetry, instantly appealed to me when I became aware of
this embroidery style.
This work comprises eleven biscornu, which roughly translates as
"irregular". Each one is made from two offset squares and has the
symmetry of a square antiprism. By embroidering each with a
different hitomezashi (one-stitch sashiko) design, a complete
three-dimensional symmetry sampler of the axial point group
$D_{4d}$, and its ten subgroups, has been created. The whole group
is depicted using a fractal (a Fibonacci snowflake), the trivial
subgroup design is aleatoric, and traditional motifs with
rotational and reflection symmetries have been combined to
decorate the other nine biscornu.