2012 Joint Mathematics Meetings

Gwen Fisher

Artists

Statement

I weave beads to appeal to people's affinity for organization in design. I use mathematics, including geometry, symmetry, and topology, as an inspiration for the structure of my creations. In this series, I explore how tilings of the plane can be interpreted as beaded angle weaves. Across cultures and continents, humans show a natural affinity towards the aesthetic of pattern and order, and my art appeals to this aesthetic in a tactile, tangible form. I have found that people often recognize the repetition and order in my pieces, and so my art appeals to their sense of discovery of the familiar in the unfamiliar.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Beaded Star Weaves: Five Bracelets'

Beaded Star Weaves: Five Bracelets

Sizes vary from 1.5" to 2.5" wide by 5.5" to 8" long

Seed bead weaving

2011

Tilings of the plane, especially periodic tilings, can be used as the basis for flat bead weaving patterns called angle weaves. The “star tilings” used to design these five bracelets are generated from the three regular tilings of the plane and two other Laves tilings. I converted each star tiling into a star weave by placing beads on the vertices and edges of the tiling and weaving them together with a needle and thread. Because all of the vertices in a regular tiling are similar, all of the stars are similar in the three regular star weaves (i.e., Kepler’s Star, Archimedes’ Star, and David’s Star). The other two star weaves (i.e., Night Sky and Snow Star) include stars of two types, reflecting the two types of vertices in their respective Laves tilings.