On this page will be pictures of sculptures I made in Spring and Summer 2020. Below are pictures of a (3,5) torus knot made of Styrofoam, coated with a urethane chemical including bronze powder, a process call ``cold casting". I finally completed this project on April 12, 2020. It is about 11" in diameter. These pictures show the progress of the coating process, first with layers having no bronze powder, then with bronze powder, finally shaped and polished with black shoe polish. Some light spots show where the bronze finish was too thin, so perhaps it needs more layers. Instead of putting on more layers of urethane, I decided to try painting it with metallic paint, and the last picture shows how it looks after quite a few coats of rose gold paint.
In honor of Nathaniel Friedman, who passed away from COVID-19 on May 2, 2020, I have carved a wooden version of one of his beautiful stone sculptures. Nat was a pioneer in the mathematical art movement, a leader in organizing math art conferences, and an inspiration to many people. He created the journal, Hyperseeing, and founded the International Society of the Arts, Mathematics and Architecture (ISAMA). This sculpture is a genus 2 surface with a raised edge forming a figure 8 knot which goes around the two holes, but not through them. The line on the surface which forms the knot divides the surface into two disjoint regions, and the surface is orientable. The original block of cherry wood was 2"x6"x6" in size. I have two other blocks of wood which I plan to also carve into this ``Friedman Figure 8 Knot" design, one is Maple Ambrosia, and the other is Purpleheart. I will post pictures when they are completed. I have also included a picture of the original Friedman stone sculpture which inspired me.
Here are pictures of the Maple Ambrosia version of the Friedman Figure 8 Knot, made from a block of size 3"x6"x6" and completed on July 7, 2020. In this series of pictures, the first two show the stage when the rough shape was made by a rasp, the next two pictures show the next stage after polishing with an 80-grit flapwheel, and the rest of the pictures show the final completed sculpture after polishing with flapwheels of grits 120, 180, 240 and 320, followed by minwax to seal the wood. I think I got the shape of this one closer to the original Friedman design.
Here are pictures of the Purpleheart version of the Friedman Figure 8 Knot, made from a block of size 3"x6"x6" completed on July 12, 2020. In this series of pictures, the first four show the stage when the rough shape was made by a rasp, the next three pictures show the next stage after polishing with an 80-grit flapwheel and partial polishing with a 120-grit flapwheel. The last six pictures show the final completed sculpture after I finished polishing with flapwheels of grits 180, 240 and 320, followed by minwax to seal the wood.
Many years ago I made a tensegrity sculpture from 9 stainless steel rods and fishing line, shown on this page: Steel and Plastic Sculptures, But the fishing line broke and I had considerable difficulty reconstructing the tensegrity. After two days of trying, using a support structure to hold the rods in place, I finally completed the reconstruction. Comparing the two versions, I think this new one is more regular. Here are some pictures from various angles.
To see more types of sculpture I have tried, follow the following links:
Links back to:
Webpage of Alex Feingold,
Department of Mathematical Sciences,
Binghamton University.