Fat and Skinny
These guys are called Fat and Skinny. They are made of walnut,
maple, and brass, 23 inches tall on the bases. Both are constructed
from the same components: 12 regular pentagons, 30 squares, 20 equilateral
triangles, and 6 golden rhombi, but they are arranged differently.
In both cases, 6 pentagons, 12 squares, and 12 triangles produce a spray
of "cilia" (arranged around the "equator" relative to the vertical 3-fold
axis of symmetry). In each case, the dark components are the pentagons
and triangles, and they fit together as an icosidodecahedron. The
light components (squares and rhombi) are arranged along three "equators"
of the icosidodecahedron in both cases. However, there are two different
ways to choose three of the six equators, and that is how they differ.
I wanted to achieve two very different "personalities" with the same geometric
components and that effect came out well. I began thinking of them
as two well-known movie critics and was surprised when my niece perspicaciously
told me they might better be called "Plain and Peanut."
copyright 1999, George W. Hart