Twelve years.

Twelve years. I started this project twelve years ago, and today I hold the result in my hand. It’s a book that combines bead weaving with math called, “Beading with Algorithms: Cellular Automata in Peyote Stitch.” With help from mathematician and artist Roger Antonsen, graphic designer Zelda Lin, a handful of talented proof readers, and the good people from World Scientific Publishing Company, my dream of combining my loves of math, art, and teaching into a book is finally a reality.

This book is the first of its kind, a recipe book of algorithms that can be used and combined to generate colorful patterns in peyote stitch beadwork in any size and shape you desire. These algorithms could also be applied to other pixelated art forms like tile laying, embroidery, crochet, and quilts. We included projects like bracelets, pill pouches, pendants, beaded beads, and key chains. We also included a bunch of different grids that you can photocopy and color with markers.

Of course I’m biased, but I think it’s a really beautiful book. We included multiple colorful images on almost every page, 172 pages in all. It was a huge layout challenge, but Zelda nailed it. My original goal was to write 128 pages on how to use algorithms to make beaded jewelry, but the more we explored the space, the more we found. Not just millions of algorithms, the space of possibilities is infinite. So of course, we couldn’t include them all. But we used math and Roger’s custom software that he wrote for this project to help us find dozens of the easiest algorithms and more than a hundred more in increasing levels of complexity. We included all of our favorites. 1/2

#MathArt #beading #Genuary #math #beadweaving

Twelve years. I started this project twelve years ago, and today I hold the result in my hand. It’s a book that combines bead weaving with math called, “Beading with Algorithms: Cellular Automata in Peyote Stitch.” With help from mathematician and artist Roger Antonsen, graphic designer Zelda Lin, a handful of talented proof readers, and the good people from World Scientific Publishing Company, my dream of combining my loves of math, art, and teaching into a book is finally a reality.

This book is the first of its kind, a recipe book of algorithms that can be used and combined to generate colorful patterns in peyote stitch beadwork in any size and shape you desire. These algorithms could also be applied to other pixelated art forms like tile laying, embroidery, crochet, and quilts. We included projects like bracelets, pill pouches, pendants, beaded beads, and key chains. We also included a bunch of different grids that you can photocopy and color with markers.

Of course I’m biased, but I think it’s a really beautiful book. We included multiple colorful images on almost every page, 172 pages in all. It was a huge layout challenge, but Zelda nailed it. My original goal was to write 128 pages on how to use algorithms to make beaded jewelry, but the more we explored the space, the more we found. Not just millions of algorithms, the space of possibilities is infinite. So of course, we couldn’t include them all. But we used math and Roger’s custom software that he wrote for this project to help us find dozens of the easiest algorithms and more than a hundred more in increasing levels of complexity. We included all of our favorites. 1/2

#MathArt #beading #Genuary #math #beadweaving

We found so much to include that the book ended up a full third longer than I had originally planned. It took years longer than I originally expected. But it was a labor of love, a passion project, something we made because we wanted to make something beautiful and inspiring. I can hardly believe it’s finally finished. I hope you will love it too.

Link to order the book: https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/14357#t=aboutBook

There’s a 30% off code
RECMATH30

It’s preorder. The release date is the end of February. 2/2

#MathArt #beading #Genuary #math #beadweaving

@UweHalfHand thank you. It’s a pretty book full of pretty pictures. Maybe that’s enough. One of my goals was to make it pass “the flip test,” meaning when you quickly flip through the pages, there’s an explosion of colorful images. When I’m in bookstores, I always use the flip test when deciding which books to buy for myself because I like pictures more than text.

There’s a complete chapter on bead weaving, but if you don’t want to learn beading, you could color the coloring pages. It’s very meditative. Or maybe you know how to lay tile, and you could use the algorithms to tile the bathroom or kitchen. The algorithms all work with grids using squares, rectangles, or regular hexagons.

Twelve years. I started this project twelve years ago, and today I hold the result in my hand. It’s a book that combines bead weaving with math called, “Beading with Algorithms: Cellular Automata in Peyote Stitch.” With help from mathematician and artist Roger Antonsen, graphic designer Zelda Lin, a handful of talented proof readers, and the good people from World Scientific Publishing Company, my dream of combining my loves of math, art, and teaching into a book is finally a reality.

This book is the first of its kind, a recipe book of algorithms that can be used and combined to generate colorful patterns in peyote stitch beadwork in any size and shape you desire. These algorithms could also be applied to other pixelated art forms like tile laying, embroidery, crochet, and quilts. We included projects like bracelets, pill pouches, pendants, beaded beads, and key chains. We also included a bunch of different grids that you can photocopy and color with markers.

Of course I’m biased, but I think it’s a really beautiful book. We included multiple colorful images on almost every page, 172 pages in all. It was a huge layout challenge, but Zelda nailed it. My original goal was to write 128 pages on how to use algorithms to make beaded jewelry, but the more we explored the space, the more we found. Not just millions of algorithms, the space of possibilities is infinite. So of course, we couldn’t include them all. But we used math and Roger’s custom software that he wrote for this project to help us find dozens of the easiest algorithms and more than a hundred more in increasing levels of complexity. We included all of our favorites. 1/2

#MathArt #beading #Genuary #math #beadweaving

@gwenbeads I feel it is a must-read for me even if I do not do any beading...

But it also reminds me of a vaguely similar project of German artist Tim Otto Roth, named “Mathematical Socialism” (https://www.maso.gallery/index.php), in which he uses cellular automata rules to weave carpets.

#CellularAutomata #MathArt #TextileArt #Weaving #TimOttoRoth

@mrdk I think that project is quite similar to mine as they’re both fiber art and cellular automata. The biggest difference is the grid. I’m using a staggered grid rather than the traditional square grid, and it turns out that makes a big difference in the visual impact of the designs. Thank you for your interest in my book.

@gwenbeads An interesting feature of the carpet project is that there is a bit of randomness in it. The weaver make sometimes (but rarely!) errors, and these are kept, and the next rows of the carpet are then developed from this changed row. (But the left-right mirror symmetry is intentionally kept.)

@gwenbeads I feel it is a must-read for me even if I do not do any beading...

But it also reminds me of a vaguely similar project of German artist Tim Otto Roth, named “Mathematical Socialism” (https://www.maso.gallery/index.php), in which he uses cellular automata rules to weave carpets.

#CellularAutomata #MathArt #TextileArt #Weaving #TimOttoRoth

@gwenbeads So I ordered one.