Felicity Wood
"Skewed Cube" - View 1
Paper, 8cm x 8cm x 8cm, 2006.
"Skewed Cube" - View 2
"Skewed Cube" - View 3
"Skewed Cube" - View 4
Felicity Wood
Basketmakers' Association
2 Frenchay Road, Oxford OX2 6TG
" My father was a free-lance industrial designer and I was brought up to be curious about how things are made and to look for similarities in the structures of things.
At a time when I was living in S E Asia, my original interest in woven textiles gradually turned towards baskets. Plaiting is a common construction method for baskets in this part of the world, using flat materials such as palm leaf.
Later, while working on the baskets in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, I met Tibor Tarnai, a Hungarian mathematician, and he suggested the idea of plaiting a 'skewed cube'.
The first time I made one I was astonished at the way in which the weaving elements follow an aperiodic route way. This particular cube has been formed by weaving 1.5cm wide strips of paper, the path followed by one element being shown by interlacing the finished cube using a strip of contrasting colour. I have experimented using bark, and also paper strapping, to plait cubes. I have made nets of several 'cubes families' using squared paper. "
felicity@fswood.free-online.co.uk
http://basketry.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/