Fractals of the Day 4/28/16

"Ruined Sierpinskis"

Yesterday's batch of fractals was created in Mandelbulb3D. I tried a bunch of color combinations, including some backgrounds and colormaps from JWildfire, but the design is so complex it looked better with simpler colors. I started with Sierpinski, and then added more folds and other things.

Austin Maker Faire 2016

I'll be doing a presentation on fractal art at the Austin Maker Faire. UPDATE- Once again, things changed. I found out my presentation will be at 11:15 on Saturday, May 7th. I hope I'll still have time to drop by the booth for the Austin Fiber Artists (http://austinfiberartists.org/). I recently visited their north group meeting, and I had a fun time. I even won a door prize of hand-painted fabric squares. I'm not sure what I'll make with them, but one of the members challenged me to find a way to print some of my fractals onto fabric. What a great source of inspiration!

Fractals of the Day 4/19/2016

Cross Stitch Samplers #1 and #2.

These two fractals, created with JWildfire, remind me of a cross-stitch design I once did that had a simple pattern pre-printed on the fabric. I added a beige background to the fractals to make them look like cross stitch fabric. I started with two copies of the juliac variation, plus a final juliac to make the pattern repeat around a circle. I squarized one of them, which makes it look even more like a sampler.

Catching Reflections (Version 1-D5)

I've never used the post-processing feature of Mandelbulb3d before. I found a tutorial, but I really wanted to just play around with it first and see what I could create. I started with a JWildfire background, and then added plain spheres on top of it in MB3D. Post-processing added the reflections. Finally, I used a bump effect and color adjustment with JWF.

Origami Pleated Mountain

If you've ever folded a simple paper fan, you might be able to make this complicated-looking mountain. It was a "doodle" that I once made while working at a job that had a lot of down time. Unfortunately, I'm not as good at actually drawing. It took me a few months to get these pictures finished.

Start with a square of paper. Fold it in half, then half again. Now fold it diagonally. That means you have 8 layers of paper.

 Now we're ready to do the fanfold. Fold all 8 layers back and forth like a fan. Crease well, then unfold the fan and re-crease all the fanfolds in the opposite direction. (The exact number of folds is not important.)

Now unfold back to the original square. All the creases are started, but you will have to work at it to get them in the directions you want. Instead of alternating straight line folds like a fan, this will have alternating v-shaped folds. Once all the folds are re-creased in alternating directions, it will be almost a cone shape. If you want it to lay flatter, you can twist the very center point.

Creases after unfolding the square.

Another quick one out of recycled paper.

Working on one fourth of the v-shaped folds.

Fiber Arts Exhibit

The Wedding Couple is a piece I have in the Fiber Arts exhibit at ArtSpace in Round Rock. This was a great opportunity to show off my inkle weaving, and to network with other local fiber artists.
For this piece, I used four types of yarn- a dark brown fake wool, a coffee-colored acrylic, a variegated cream-colored cotton, and a stiffer, rope-like cotton. I wove two narrow bands on the inkle loom, and then sewed them together into a wider band. I couldn't bear to cut the wide band, so I folded it back on itself. Even the folded pocket at the bottom that reminds me of a fortune cookie is part of the continuous piece. I used the stiffer cotton to add surface ornamentation. Some knots were added as I wove, and some were added afterwards. You probably can't tell which are which, but if I had to do it over, I would do them all afterwards. There are Josephine knots, barrel knots, crochet, and tatting. To finish it off, I added a canvas backing, and then inserted a wood and wire framework to help it keep its shape.

A conversation with my mother inspired the title. I think it was the "rolled collar" and "corsage" that made her think of a bride and groom.

The Wedding Couple

Fractals of the Day

Coiled Basket

 It probably wouldn't surprise anyone that I often find inspiration for fractals from weaving. The first two pictures here are combinations of JWildfire and Mandelbulb3D. The first one uses a Mandelbulb3D spiral as the background image, and the same image as a colormap in JWildfire. The second picture has a Mandelbulb3D picture as a colormap, which also adds texture.

Picnic Blanket

Next, I have two more fractals that are pure JWildfire. They both have circlize and squarize used in different ways.

Scepters

Trophy

And finally, I have more fractals that are mostly Mandelbulb3D. They both ended up with patterns that are more asymmetric than I usually get with JWildfire.