0 Comments Sacred Geometry | Part 2

It has been some time now since Part 1 of this (as it turns out) lengthy project of customising a relatively small desk top chest of drawers from IKEA. As promised, in this post I will be showing you the finished facings of the six drawers with pattern outlines done in pencil. But first, I thought I should tell you why I chose this particular design.

Sacred geometry. The use of geometric patterns in Arabic art emerged only a couple of centuries after the birth of Islam as a religion and culture (circa 7th century CE), and subsequently became one of the most pronounced traits of Islamic art and architectural design. Based mostly on Euclidian "elements", islamic geometry was exploring and building upon the knowledge of the Greeks, creating most fascinating interlacing ornaments from the simplest forms:

To Muslims, these forms, taken together, constitute an infinite pattern that extends beyond the visible material world. To many in the Islamic world, they concretely symbolize the infinite, and therefore uncentralized, nature of the creation of Allah. (Wikipedia)

I think the idea behind it is truly fascinating. And what I found by drawing the patterns myself for the last few days is that the process is rather meditative, too.

Anyway, I am not going to bore you further with talks about the symbolism behind each pattern and each geometric element, but rather let you finally see the photo of six facings of drawers with finished pencil outlines. I wanted each one to have a different design, and that is what I came up with in the end:

1.     For the largest drawer I decided to have something simpler with less lines and messy linking points, and, quite frankly, less work to be done. The inspiration came from photographs of tiling in Seffarine Medersa (Fez, Morocco). As with most other designs, there are quite a few variations of this pattern, mostly changing the size and style of the motifs, sometimes having them overlapping. I chose the simplest, flat mosaic-like design:

Right half of the drawer with the grid and pattern outline

As you can see, it is a horizontal grid-based pattern, where main lines are falling roughly at 60º. Little crossed curved sections all over the pattern are drawn with the help of compasses set on one radius. The outline is then drawn by hand, just like in the other designs.

2.     This drawer features one of the most generic eight-point designs in Islamic geometric art. It is built using tangent circles, various points of which are then connected at different angles to create the multitude of different elements and shapes, like four- and five-point elements, triangles and octagons:

Working the pattern from the centre outwards

From the picture above you can see this pattern has two underlying grids – one going parallel to the shape of the drawer, and the other identical grid tilted by 45º.

3.     This pattern from the walls of Alhambra (Granada, Spain), although very pretty, turned out to be a complete nightmare to make! If you see below, you will notice that it is constructed by filling out the whole surface with interlocking circles that incorporate the twisting trefoil motifs within:

Diagram source here 

It was not difficult to construct conceptually, since it only required a pair of compasses set at a single radius. But I wanted the trefoil motifs to be fairly small, meaning that the radius had to be even smaller (in my case only 7mm), so the biggest struggle was to keep the circles evenly aligned throughout. I managed, in the end, but this pattern took me the longest to complete an outline, even though it was one of the smallest surfaces available.

4.      Originating from 13th century Persian tiling, this pattern is still very common in Islamic geometric art and architectural design, and is commonly referred to as "cross and star":

It is constructed using eight-point geometry, which results in a tessellation of two perfectly interlocking motifs, an eight-point star and a cross (hence the name, duh!). Unlike the previous pattern, this one was possibly the easiest to make.

5.     This pattern has the most unique feel to me, since I saw it first hand on the wall of Tomb of I'timād-ud-Daulah in Agra, India. There some segments of it were, in fact, powdered semi-precious stones rather than tiles. Here, on my little drawer, it will be a bit more humble.

Triangular grid and the beginning of the pattern outline

The pattern is essentially based on a grid of miniature equilateral triangles, where the end design is, again, only one of many possible variations. Here, it is a six-point star encompassed in what appears to be a thick woven border, with smaller hexagonal infills. What I also like about this pattern is that it features some floral elements (constructed with a pair of compasses set on a very small radius), thus differentiating it from the other five.

6.     Finally, the last facing is here! It is the drawer I gave you a preview of in Part 1 of this post, which features the most complex-looking design based on 12-point geometry:

Similarly to the design of drawer 2., it is constructed by first drawing a group of tangent circles. The only difference is that whereas in the other design there were two identical grids built on top of the circles, here there are three – at the right angle, at 30º and at 60º (notice the three superimposed crosses in each circle). You can see that this design is essentially the same, and thus features the same base elements. What I particularly like about this one though, is that it has a lot more stars in it.

Done! Here is the brief description and a more detailed look at each of the six facings for you. I hope reading it was not as exhausting as writing it all up, and I really hope that you share my enthusiasm about the designs! Let me know what you think in the comments ;)

I have already bought (and swatch tested) a set of pearly acrylic colours which I am planning to use on the drawers. Who am I kidding? I have already painted one drawer today! But that will be Part 3 for you, where I will show you the six facings in colour :p

E.V.