I spent a few days with
George Miller in
Sonoma, CA, in August 2009. We thought it would be fun to work
together with some of my software and some of his hardware to whip up a
new puzzle/sculpture design. Since George has a laser-cutter, we were
able to design this, fabricate the parts, and assermble it, all in half
a day. Above is the final result, which, for lack of a more creative
name, I am calling
Sonoma.
It
consists
of
twelve foam parts and twelve acrylic spheres, all
arranged with an icosahedral structure. The nice two-tone effect
comes about
because the foam is a darker blue on the laser-cut edges.
This is the design for each of the identical twelve parts. They touch
each other only at their tips.
I was there in part to give a talk at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art,
where George had co-curated an exhibit
that included some of my work. A large version of
Frabjous
that George laser-cut was used on the poster.
Above is a computer-rendering of the design. Maybe it looks easy
to you, but it is quite a knot to put together.
Here I am starting on it. Stan Isaacs is visiting too and is
great with puzzles.
It took a lot of wriggling (and a secret paper cup technique) for us to
get all the overs and unders
properly worked out. (You can also see a hint of George Miller at
left in this image.)
It's a type of design that falls completely apart unless the last piece
is in place to lock everything together.
To hold it together securely as a sculpture, I superglued acrylic balls
into the five-fold joints.
When complete, I donated
Sonoma to
the
Museum
to
auction off as a fundraiser. It
is now in the collection of Bret Seligman, who I also thank for taking
these photos.
And a big thank you to George Miller for hosting me and initiating all
this excellent fun.