Craig Kaplan

Most Islamic star patterns can be rendered in an interlaced style, wherein the pattern is decomposed into distinct strands, and each strand weaves alternately over and under the strands it crosses. If the pattern is periodic, then every strand is either a closed loop or a (conceptually infinite) piecewise polygonal path that repeats after some number of segments. In a series of works, I have explored the expression of finite pieces of interlaced star patterns in a literal form, using woven strips of paper. The strips are cut automatically using a digital craft cutter, but the paper must be carefully woven together by hand. The first example uses 20 copies of a single strip in two colours, woven to form a "star-and-cross" pattern. The second uses seven closed hexagons, together with a set of zig-zag strips of varying lengths. The physical act of weaving these works can help reinforce one's intuition for the mathematical structure of the underlying designs.