The Vitruvian Box of Seven Joys
Yesterday, I was at the Smith College Museum of Art, a lovely collection in a building of shocking hideosity, and they had a newish painting that caught my eye — it used a palimpsest technique that a friend of mine once used to good effect. One of the layers was a sketch of the Vitruvian man, a pretty obvious one, I thought, but it being a teaching museum, there was a placard right next to the painting, explaining who the Vitruvian man was. And that reminded me of something Mélisande* said a couple years back, about the feet being a heptagon’s edge apart.
So, I figured, why not? Make a palimpsest version of the Box of Seven Joys — you print it out, duplex. On my printer, that means I go and flip the paper around and run it through again. Your mileage may vary.
Missus oschene sees this and says, “That looks just like your physical therapy exercises on the refrigerator.” She’s right, it does, except that the physical therapy guy is wearing boxers and has a less rugged visage.
I admire you are able to remember what I said 2 years ago, because myself have forgotten about.
Coincidentally, this evening I was busy refolding my Leeuwarden variation of the 7-sided tato-box, trying to find the best ratios.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:17 pmAt my certain age, memory becomes an increasingly interesting mechanism. Half the time, a stimulus will set off a chain of tangential ideas and loosely connected memories; the other half, I’m left blinking and asking whoever it is I’m speaking with to repeat himself.
But I do remember the Leeuwarden variation and hope you will teach me your methods of reckoning ratios when next we meet.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:40 pmWhile folding in the lobes of the circle to create the heptagon (step 11), I found a useful trick. Fold one lobe (difficult to do accurately). Once satisfied, fold the circle in half along the diameter say just to the right of the folded lobe. Now run a finger over the top to lightly score the next lobe over. This makes it easier to (more) accurately fold the rest.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:23 am