Study in Black and White VII
Idea
The book Beautiful Geometry is an interesting book with 51 short chapters about geometry, each with a piece of artwork to illustrate it. It has a chapter on the Sierpiński triangle, which was featured in the Study in Black and White VI. Looking for the next study in black and white idea, I found a chapter on Lissajous curves. There are many variations of this curve, and I chose a symmetrical one that was complex, but not so complex it was just a bunch of lines.
Design
My first design was nested parallel folds of two different curves in the middle of the card, as shown in the lower-left sketch below. The problem with that was it just looked like an X under the first curve. I played around with three curves, but that was too busy (third sketch down on the right). The final design was I believe one of the simplest ones I’ve done, just one parallel fold in the middle.
When I first started making pop-ups, I thought that the more complex the mechanism, the better the card. As my card-making skills have matured, I have found that it’s the content that makes the card, not the complexity of the mechanism. In this case, it is very simple, but I think effective as another in the series.
Sketches
I adjusted the width of the lines to get a balance between the black and white, without closing up the smaller white areas.
Here’s the front view, showing the elegant simplicity of the design.
Front view
I calculated the maximum size of the mechanism that would fit in the card, and then designed the base. On either side of the mechanism it half of the curve, and the center is a full curve. The mechanism is a full curve matching those on either side. Since the mechanism lifts up when the card opens, the area under it is narrower than the full curve. To have the printed curve match the mechanism, it had to be shrunk width-wise. As you can see by the image at the top, the mechanism lines up just about perfectly with the printed curve below it. All the design was done on the computer and the mechanism was cut with the Silhouette Cameo.
Cover
The cover has some of Howard Jr’s artwork on it, with a Lissajous curve as a detail.
Build
- 9” x 6”
- The base was Strathmore 300 Bristol 100lb
- The mechanism was cardstock from Michaels.
- The inner mechanism was cut with the Silhouette Cameo.
- The curve on the cover was cut by hand.