Whimsy

George Hart



Whimsy is a design which I find so fascinating that I made it in two sizes.  There is something visually engaging about its swirling motion and the way it is not convex even though the pieces are flat and the vertices are locally convex.  The large negative spaces are also very interesting.  Above is the 10-inch diameter version I made first, from laser-cut cherry wood.  The process of fabricating it and something about its mathematical structure are detailed in this video.  The contrast between the dark laser-cut edge lines and the richness of the solid cherry adds a special character to this version.

I later was invited to lead a sculpture barn raising at the 2014 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Baltimore and for that I designed a larger 30-inch diameter version from Baltic birch plywood, which many participants helped me create.  It is shown on this page.