Invitation to My Sandbox

 

12 fold star

For the next couple of weeks I would like to focus on a collaborative project and I hope you will join me.

Your part will be to  color in a small image (which I will send to you)  that is no larger than a 3.5 inch (9 cm) square. After you color it in with your favorite drawing tool send a scanned version back to me.

A printable sheet of the sequence of steps

Notice from the drawings in the image above that I want you define the pattern that you color in, using whatever grouping of shapes that appeal to you.  What is so interesting to me about these geometric constructions is that they can be partitioned in so many interesting ways.

The tiles  that I have look something like this:

Sample of four tiles

Each tile is one of thirty-six parts of this rosette:

12 Fold Rosette, made after watching a video by Lex Wilson who learned it from a book by Eric Broug

These constructions have their roots in Islamic Geometry; the brilliance and beauty of these stars have been globally influential for centuries. I am being intentional about symbolically gathering together under these stars as a statement in support of diversity and unity.

As soon as I receive peoples’ tiles I will digitally trim, vectorize and  stitch them together. The fully assembled stars will be posted by late January.

For the next couple of weeks I will be focusing on getting the pieces of this project together.

I will email a tile to you if you leave me a comment or send me an email. The first part of the email address is  paula12fold  and the second part is  @gmail.com

In case you are wondering, YES! I want your children to participate in this too.

IF you would just like to color in a twelve-fold star (they are so incredibly beautiful) here’s a page for you:

And here’s some inspiration, demonstrating the versatility of this structure:If you have a classroom of students( or a big family) you can do this project yourself. Just download my PDF of the tiles and assemble them in six by six grid. Each tile comes with a number; numbers 1 -6 make up the top row. Be sure to keep the number with the tile until it finds its place in the star.  You must send me a photo of the finished star if you do this! Your finished image will be about 21 inches across (about 53  square centimeters).

Getting Started

Ready to get started? Tell me how to send you a tile over the internet.

Wishing you a good holiday season.

Paula

Addendum: some examples of colored tiles

Also here’s the PDF of the Star Files so you can do this project with your own circle of people