Solar Flair
Wood Version at G4G12 Conference

George W. Hart



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.


Copyright 2016, George W. Hart