Echinodermania
Toroidal Forms
I like echinoderms, and these are toroidal sculptures inspired by their
forms.
They are not models of actual species, but more like some kind of
parallel universe evolution of maniacal echinoderms. This family is
toroidal in form, with the above example making five twists in its
cycle.
All are made by selective laser sintering of nylon, on an SLS
machine, then I dyed them.
It can be hard to understand the form
from a photo, so this computer rendering might help.
Notice that some of the finer details of the design could not be
fabricated.
This top view of the same form shows its five-fold structure.
This
second example is related, but makes seven twists.
Again, a computer rendering shows some details of the design more
clearly.
And a top view shows the seven-fold structure of this one.
There is a paper describing the
mathematics
here.
There is a picture showing the original white color and an .stl file
for you to make your own
here.
Copyright 2007, George W. Hart