I am a fan of art deco and have been looking at symmetry in art deco designs.
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Today we wrapped-up our first ever BeauSym open hours! We had a blast co-creating on Zoom. It was so exciting to hear about the varied directions folks plan to take the activity–from computer modeling, to visualizing music, to exploring palindromes and symmetrical text. I loved the idea about engaging movement to teach about different types of symmetry (mentioned by @Francesca and @bborden), like stepping in different ways according to the Frieze patterns. Today I experimented with cutting up foam sheets and acrylic paint to create stamps:
I also had fun making Malevich-inspired creation, thinking about our discussion about disrptuion and balance in art:
Looking forward to more adventures! As a continuation of the stamping process, I’m planning to collect objects from the natural world in order to create patterns on paper.
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Amazing! Thank you for the resources. I’m inspired to try this out as a mini program this summer.
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Here’s picture of Mountain Laurel (aka nature’s most symmetrical and sci fi inspired plant according to me) as well as the projects I worked on during today’s beta testing session. The one I like the most is the manila envelope that I “cleaned” my roller on with lots of random overlap. I’m really looking forward to digging a little deeper in the upcoming weeks.
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Wow! The mountain Laurel is an amazing looking plant! The pattern grid at the bottom of your photos are really fun looking!
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This is so cool! I never thought of music this way before.
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My PLIX potato 
arrived from the East intact and well-preserved! Thanks so much Avery and the PLIX team for a very cool BeauSym kit! 
As I was driving home from work today I was listening to some Elton John, and I’ve got a suggestion for the BeauSym playlist: Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. The duet has a fun sort of symmetry to it…don’t go breaking my heart (i won’t go breaking your heart) Plus it’s a fun karaoke song! 
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It has been so wonderful seeing the amazing creativity in this thread. I also really enjoyed attending the work session yesterday. I was a little quiet because I’m new and I’m taking it all in, but it was a pleasure to see all your creations.
I initially started working with the stamps but for whatever reason I was having a difficult time getting ideas to flow. I’m not sure why, and I’ll revisit stamping because I do have some vague things sloshing around that I would like to try. However, I went back to the prompt and I saw the one about symmetry in the natural world and how it provides form and function and the first thing I thought was a spider web.
So I tried to draw one. I then started thinking about symmetry in other parts of the natural world and I came up with butterflies and flowers and leaves and wanted to add those. I grabbed some fabric from home and did some folding and cutting and came up with the picture below.
Then I grabbed the tissue paper and I continued folding and cutting because if you’re going to fold and cut you have to make a tissue paper snowflake. I wanted to see how delicate and beautiful I could make it, and if I could put a butterfly in the design. I think I was somewhat successful.
I want to explore more abstract creations with symmetry so that will be what I will try for next time, maybe continuing with the spider web idea but with stamps, but I wanted to share what I worked on this week. All of your posts and your ideas are amazing! Thank you so much for letting me participate.
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I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more intricate paper snowflake, @janeflem ! Amazing! I can see your butterfly motif in the snowflake, but I can also see a bumblebee shape as well as dragonfly and spider-like shapes. Very cool!
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@Michelle nope, never too late to join! Feel free to swing by open hours this upcoming Wednesday at 2 pm for some co-crafting!
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I looked at song titles, band names, and album covers as I thought of songs to add to the BeauSym Playlist today. I discovered this early 80s, symmetrical album artwork I like from Young Marble Giants:
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Love this creative solution to the BeauSym playlist!
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This morning, during a summer series of programs featuring Folktales, we did The Ugly Duckling. With our program we always have a STEM activity. This one was science of Light and Reflection. As part of this, we gave out mirrors at the library along with a list of what to have ready for the program. We incorporated symmetry as part of the activity. We are very excited to find new ways to incorporate symmetry into other programs this summer. The attendees, preschool through 4th grade, were so excited to explore symmetry with their new portable mirrors.
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@hardingn I love your efforts to provide library activities for such a wide range of young patrons…preK-4th grade. Wow! Love that symmetry concepts can engage everyone.
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We forgot to tell everyone that we sent you Cheez-its and Bunny Grahams because we think that Food Symmetry would be a funny patron activity. I made a simple repeating pattern with the bunnies. You can imagine doing this with any kind of mass produced snack where each unit looks more or less the same. Or with sliced log cookies!
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A little bit of a digression, but as someone mentioned Chladni Plates in our first meeting, I thought this biological riff on them would be interesting to all y’all.
Someone name Doug McLean wrote:
Research at Stanford University is finding acoustics to create new heart tissue.
This image shows the ‘cymatics’, or geometric patterns created in heart cells when applying various sounds. In bio-acoustic sound medicine, is taught that sounds are imprinting every cell and science continues to prove this ancient axiom.
Cardiologist Sean Wu, MD, PhD and Utkan Demirci, PhD, an acoustic bio-engineer use acoustics to manipulate heart cells into intricate patterns. A simple change in frequency and amplitude puts the cells in motion, guides them to a new position and holds them in place. Acoustics can create a form that resembles natural cardiac tissue. With sound they can create new tissue to replace parts of damaged hearts. Acoustics can be used in reconstructing other organ tissue and blood vessels.
Sounds are use to create and harmonize, as well as clean and release. Both principles are used in science using high precision acoustical generators. The same principles can be applied safely by individuals using non-invasive, natural harmonic sounds, such as our voices and acoustic instruments.
Here is a link to the Stanford study:
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Hey again 
So this past week I’ve been playing around in two main directions…
First, I’ve been continuing to experiment with the combination of copy & paste + transparency to find quick ways to make symmetry-inspired patterns – here’s a look at some of the fun stuff that’s been emerging. Each of these designs took between 3 and 10 minutes to make in Canva:
Second, I’ve been playing with some different ways to visualize the iterative transformations that result in symmetrically-rooted patterns. Given that all of our programs are virtual for the time being, I’ve been continuing to focus primarily on digital representations that would be easy to incorporate into our online programming. Here are a couple GIFs that arose from my tinkering.
The gif above is composed of 8 image files created in Canva. Using the crossfade feature in ezgif.com, I was able to achieve a “ghosted” image of the previous frame [The length of the crossfade can be adjusted, and you can also stack transparent frames to modify this effect]. My thinking was that having a temporary “visual history” could help to highlight process AND end result when making and/or explaining certain symmetrical examples (such as frieze patterns). While this particular first stab at gif-iteration was focused primarily on learning the mechanics of the crossfade, it led me to the following explorations in stop motion animation that focused more on process documentation.
Using some of the materials included in the PLIX box, I made these animations using a free app called “Stop Motion Studio” that a co-worker recommended to me. Each took probably 20-30 mins to make, but would likely be faster if (unlike me) you had done it a couple times before haha. Anyway, the idea was present a few options for visualizing the development of symmetrical patterns. In the last two rows of the gif on the right, I liked being able to document both the end-result pattern AND the transformations necessary to achieve it. Next week my plan is to keep playing in this direction.
In these last two gifs I was thinking about fractals and the ways that symmetry can appear across various scales. On the left I was playing with several reflections and mirrorings of a single bat. Part of the fun here was relying on symmetry and then also breaking that symmetry in the later frames. On the right I was making a fibonacci spiral as a shout-out to symmetry found in nature.
Ok, that’s it for now, but I’m excited to continue seeing all the wonderful things you all have been trying out 
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Hi All, Sami here! Sorry for being MIA. I got married on the 26th (in record setting heat) and then went on a road trip honeymoon. I’m back now and ready to dive in!
I’m a community librarian, serving all ages at Deschutes Public Library in Bend/Sunriver, Oregon. I am so intrigued by the materials in the kit, and loved finding things I never would have thought might include symmetry.
I keep being surprised by examples of symmetry all around me… in nature and even on my keyboard. Prior to COVID I had acquired a bunch of computer parts and pieces and keyboard keys, and had hoped to make some mandalas with kids. Mandalas are such a unique form of symmetry to me. From the box I was drawn by the nod to bees and honeycombs. My brain is just churning!
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