This is a 30-inch version of
Solar Flair, which I made
as a model while designing
the
full-scale metal version. This wood version is
made from sixty laser-cut Baltic birch plywood components,
assembled with small cable ties. It is stained blue,
with a lighter shade on the inside. I led a group
of participants at the Gathering for Gardner Conference to
build it as a sculpture assembly event.
The first step is to assemble three-part modules using the
end of the piece with a right angle.
Then five modules come together using the end of the piece
that has an acute angle.
The trickiest aspect of the assembly is that the tab in the
middle of each part joins to the body of another part.
We keep adding modules to the growing sculpture, weaving
them each into position.
The cable ties are inserted with a consistent handedness, so
they make a spiral with rotational symmetry.
The outer cable ties are left long but I later cut off the
tails of the inner ties, which hold the tabs.
The result looks great and is now part of
the Gathering for Gardner art collection.
There is some video of it
here.