ARTFUL MATHS
  • Home
  • Resources
    • Mathematical Art Lessons
    • Classroom Display Ideas
  • Origami
    • Origami Clubs
    • Origami in Lessons
    • Origami Gallery
  • Puzzle Games
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact Me
    • Subscribe

Mandala May-hem!

21/5/2020

0 Comments

 
This month, Lindsey Bowkett (@MissBowkett) and I have been challenging ourselves to draw a mandala a day in May. We both wanted to get back into the swing of making art regularly, and when Lindsey coined the hashtag #Maydala, we were off!

We have been delighted to have been joined on the journey by many other maths teachers across Twitter – here are some of their wonderful designs. For even more marvellous mandala mayhem, do check out the #Maydala hashtag!
@giftedHKO
@KierstyT
@giftedHKO
@MathsJanet
@CarolineDimelow
@japleen_kaur1's daughter
@b_karadia
@fractionfanatic
@hillaust
@b_karadia
@MissBowkett
@japleen_kaur1
@PaulaKrieg
@hillaust
@987jude
@MathsJanet
Mandalas are rich in mathematics (circle geometry, reflective and rotational symmetry), and provide useful practice with geometry tools including rulers, compasses and protractors. Several teachers have asked how to introduce the activity to their students, so I have decided to collate the ideas and resources from my original twitter thread here.
The word ‘mandala’ means ‘circle’ in Sanskrit, and mandalas have a deep spiritual or cosmic meaning in many cultures and traditions. For our #Maydala purposes, a mandala is any circular design exhibiting pattern and symmetry.
Mandala making is accessible to all. The repetitive nature of these designs means that drawing them can be a wonderfully absorbing and meditative process, and it's a process that results in stunning geometrical patterns - bonus!
Designs can be drawn entirely freehand, or using a mixture of freehand and compass/ruler construction, or solely compass and ruler construction. Anything goes! Some participants are even using technology or origami to make their mandalas, with stunning results:
@RobRubix
@PaulaKrieg
@rrmmff
So, how do you get started? These Wikihow instructions are really clear and easy to follow:
Picture
And this set of video tutorials from Kathryn Costa (@100mandalas) are very useful too.
Lindsey (@MissBowkett) has made a series of lovely timelapse videos showing her process, such as this one:

My first ever time lapse video ... #Maydala @c0mplexnumber #Mandala #MandalaArt #Mindfulness pic.twitter.com/nkyqhPD4Mp

— Miss Bowkett (@MissBowkett) May 14, 2020
And Miss Konstantine (@giftedHKO) made this set of instructions for a fabulous cube mandala, which Becky Warren (@becky_k_warren) followed to make her version, coloured in with colouring pencils, below.
Picture
Picture
Picture
But there are lots of other things you can do too!
How about making a mandala from objects around the house, or from things found on a walk outside? The artist James Brunt (@RFJamesUK) makes fabulous designs from found objects, or from the contents of his junk drawer!

Lockdown series pic.twitter.com/IR7CjB78dm

— james brunt artist (@RFJamesUK) May 17, 2020

Isolation April pic.twitter.com/5tSFrIz861

— james brunt artist (@RFJamesUK) April 26, 2020
Or if you have a pebble collection you could get creative and add some dotty colour. Check out this totally scrumptious work by the artist Elspeth McLean!
If you’ve got a Spirograph set gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere then this is the perfect excuse to dust it off and get spiralling. Metallic pens add that extra bling!
@c0mplexnumber
@PaulaKrieg
@c0mplexnumber
Fancy giving your compasses a workout? Islamic geometric patterns begin with a single circle, and are some of the most beautifully proportioned patterns in the world. Check out Samira Mian's (@samira_mian) Youtube channel for some clear and easy-to-follow tutorials. Here is a lovely circular pattern perfect for a mandala!
So, a plethora of resources and ideas to help you get started! If you post your finished artwork on Twitter, be sure to use the #Maydala hashtag. You can use it any time of the year - why not?!
0 Comments

Construct-a-Christmas-card

17/11/2018

0 Comments

 
Last year I made my own Spirograph Christmas cards and I so enjoyed the process that this year I've decided to make my own mathsy cards again.
Recently I've been learning to draw a lot of Islamic geometric designs using compass and straight-edge, and I fancied using the same tools to create a Christmas card. I came up with the idea of constructing an accurate 5-pointed star (pentagram) and leaving the construction lines behind as part of the design.
Here's how they turned out  :o)
Picture
I'm really happy with them, and they don't take too long to make if you get a little production line going. I thought I'd share the instructions so that you can make them too. I've also made a 'Construct a five-pointed star' powerpoint if you'd like to make them with your students as a 'Christmaths' activity.

Materials

You'll need a pair of compasses, a nice sharp pencil, a ruler and some coloured pens, pencils or paints. Metallic pens are great for getting a shimmery gold or silver outline. You'll also need some card to fold and construct your design on. Any sturdy 160-250 gsm card will do, but I used some pre-folded blank cards which can be bought cheaply in most stationery or craft shops.
Picture

Instructions

STEP 1 Measure to find the centre of the front of your card and mark this faintly with your pencil. Draw a horizontal line through this centre, from side to side.
STEP 2 Place your compass point on your marked centre and draw a starting circle that leaves at least two or three centimetres of card around its edge. You need the space around the outside of your circle for some construction lines in the next step.
STEP 3 Construct your pentagram within this circle. I used this BBC Bitesize instructional video, or you can follow the steps in my powerpoint.
STEP 4 Outline your star in marker pen, or metallic pen for extra shimmeriness. Then colour it in. I used metallic watercolour paints for mine.
STEP 5 Finally, if you wish, you can outline your star again with a fine black pen. I achieved a 'interleaved' effect on my stars by outlining both sides of my original metallic line, going alternatively 'over and under' each line I met as I travelled around the star (see bottom right photo below).
If you have lots of cards to draw, then it's easiest to set up a production line. Gather your blank cards together in a pile and draw one step of the construction process at a time on every card. That is, draw all your starting horizontal lines on every card first, then all your starting circles, then all your perpendicular bisectors and so on. This helps you avoid having to repeatedy open and close your compass.
Picture
What other Christmassy things could you make with your stars? Do let me know in the comments below.
✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭✭
0 Comments

Mathematical Colouring Pages

2/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Colouring books. They're everywhere. They've taken over bookshops across the world, and colouring pencils can't be made fast enough to meet demand. But what do they have to offer students and maths lovers?

Colouring club

At my previous school, after re-discovering colouring books myself one lazy summer, I started a colouring club. I purchased a couple of animal-themed colouring books (everybody likes animals) with a focus on images that employed repeating pattern and/or symmetry, as I wanted to include a maths theme. I also found a great 'Ultimate Dot-to-Dot' book. I cut the pages out and kept them in a folder, in plastic pockets, and simply photocopied the designs as and when the students selected them. That way I kept the originals as 'masters'.

I have to confess that initially I rather stereotypically imagined that it would be a club that only appealed to girls, but the reality surprised me - the majority of the 12 or so regular attendees were boys from Years 7 and 8, many of whom also coloured at home. And it was boys that told me "This is the best club ever! Can you run it every lunchtime?!" They were in charge of getting out the coloured pencils and the folder of colouring sheets, and then they sat down, coloured in, and chatted happily all lunchbreak. So, it was an absolute success, and apart from a little organisation at the start of the year, took no planning at all on my part (result!). If you would like to start your own colouring club you are welcome to use this editable poster to advertise it (click on the middle image for the file; you will need to download the free font 'Back To School').
Picture
Picture
Picture

Mathematical colouring books

But what if you like your colouring even more mathematical?  Well, there are several beautiful, maths-themed colouring books out there, as well as several free resources which I will detail in the next section. Perhaps the most well-known of these books is Snowflake Seashell Star (below, entitled 'Patterns of the Universe' in the US) by Alex Bellos and Edmund Harris. It's a lovely book, chock full of beautiful mathematical patterns, and is divided into two sections: a section of images to colour in, and a set of instructions and templates allowing you to create other patterns, such as an Ulam spiral and a hyperbola, yourself. There is also an index with further information on each type of pattern. This makes it informative as well as recreational; one to treasure.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Another good colouring book is The Golden Ratio Colouring Book, by Steve Richards (above left, and right). This consists of a series of decorative designs based around patterns formed from the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Spiral, as well as other mathematical patterns such as the Vesica Piscis, the Flower of Life and the Koch snowflake.
And we mustn't forget the wonderful Altair Design books that many of us will remember from childhood. These have been updated to include patterns based on Islamic geometry, Penrose tiling and sets of colourable postcards. The images below were coloured by my mum, Judith.
Picture
Altair design
Altair design
Altair design
Altair design

Free mathematical colouring resources

However, there really isn't any need to spend money on mathematical colouring books if you don't want to; some very generous and creative souls have shared beautiful mathematical images for you to download, print and colour for free. 
The first of these is a beautiful downloadable colouring book by Marshall Hampton, aptly named A Mathematical Colouring Book. It is a really high quality text, full of elegant mathematical curves and patterns (see below), with a short description of each figure at the end of the book. A great addition to any colouring collection!
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Martin Holtham (@GHSMaths) has used his amazing Desmos skills to create a set of stunning colourable images which he has shared on his Mathemart blog here. I particularly like his 'curve of pursuit', left. If you would like to learn how to draw these beautiful spirals yourself there is a set of instructions on my Mathematical art lessons page.
Finally, the talented Devan Matthews (@devan_matthews), a mathematical artist who works with Microsoft Excel, has shared some of his delicate images online for people to colour. He has also created an intriguing set of dot-to-dot maths art pictures.
Here are the links to Devan's sets of images:
  • Mathematical art join-the-dots pictures
  • Math art series 1 (three fold symmetry)
  • Math art series 2 (four fold symmetry)
  • Math art series 3 (five fold symmetry)
  • More of Devan's blog posts with delicious geometrical curves and mandalas for colouring.
Examples of Devan's work are right and below.
I hope you find as much enjoyment in this beautiful selection of mathematical images as I have.

Happy colouring! :)
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    I teach maths.  I'm a bit arty.   I like to combine the two.

    Archives

    May 2020
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016

    Categories

    All
    3D
    A Level Maths
    Christmas
    Colouring
    Constructions
    Displays
    Enrichment
    Fractals
    Halloween
    Mandalas
    Mathematical Art
    Origami
    Tessellations
    Valentine's Day

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @c0mplexnumber
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Privacy Policy
Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee
Terms and conditions
© COPYRIGHT 2016 CLARISSA GRANDI.  SOME RIGHTS RESERVED.