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.

0 Comments Sacred Geometry | Part 1

When I just moved back to Russia I faced a problem of scarce storage space for some of my everyday junk. For everything, really, but the tiny desk I got for myself absolutely positively could not afford to have a pile of make-up products, hair accessories and sunglasses simply resting on it collecting dust. The simplest solution was soon found in IKEA (yes, again), with this lovely mini-chest of drawers made of untreated wood. Not only it takes up relatively little space on my desk, but it also fits all the small junk just fine. Another good thing about it is that you can re-arrange the six drawers whenever and however you like or need.

There was only one problem: how on Earth was I going to give it a custom design?

Not because I couldn't, no. But there were simply too many options. Should I make random doodles with a sharpie hoping they would make a nice pattern? Should I imprint newspapers on them? Should I cite something? Colour-block? Draw something to show what's inside? And many other creative things one can think of doing with six facings of untreated wood. It all was getting a bit too overwhelming, so I shelved the whole idea of doing anything with them at all.

That was until a few days back, when my post-New-Year's-Eve-celebration brain had a sudden epiphany – Islamic geometry!

Having visited the North of India a few months back, where one can see a strong influence of the muslim Mughal Empire, particularly in architecture (including such wonder as Taj Mahal), I finally saw first-hand the fascinating Islamic art with its lacy masonry, architectural grandeur and simple yet at the same time very elaborate geometric patterns. The latter probably had the strongest effect on me. My eyes would find it hard to rest, following the narrow lines around the tiling only to find that those lines are infinite. It was somewhat of a unifying dance of simplest geometric shapes, skilfully combined together to form something much grander. Breathtaking.

So I thought, what could possibly stop me from making six little replicas of Islamic tiling like those of Taj Mahal, Alhambra, and many others, on the facings of the drawers? The fact that I have never made one pattern like that maybe? No problem at all – with a little help from Pinterest, arming myself with a pair of compasses, a triangular ruler and enough pencils, I began 'drafting' the patterns on paper.

My idea is to draw a different style on each of the six facings, plus have the top surface as well as the sides covered in a more simplistic design (possibly including the arabesque border, which is the name for a floral ornament). I am still not sure what I want to do with it in terms of colours, but I'm sure some ideas will come along the way.

Not to leave you empty-handed in terms of pictures, here are some snaps of my current progress on the design of the first (medium-sized) drawer:

12-point circular pattern

Beginning to transfer the outline on the drawer facing. Same pattern in the background

Finished outline

This project is a massive amount of work, so I probably won't be able to maintain a certain frequency with which I'll be putting up the following Parts. However, I can promise you that I won't drop this project since I got way too into it already :) Anyway, in Part 2 I was planning to talk a little bit more about the designs and their meanings, and show you the complete six facings pre-colour, so stay tuned for more!

E.V.