Itching to use diagrams in carousels, I dug out an old dental text book I’d received in a book buddies Secret Santa one year, and those diagrams feature in the outside layer of this carousel. I’ve chosen a few diagrams, and then I varied which parts of the diagram I removed to see the effect (it’s important, I’ve discovered, to remove a substantial part of the outer layers, so the viewer can see through easily – just tiny lines (like the needles in these diagrams) was insufficient). To let enough light in I took sections out of the diagrams more or less at random in some cases.
The central layer is the same all the way around. It’s a hopscotch on the school playground in Vence, France. Vence is the town where Matisse designed a chapel towards the end of his life (in the 50s), and Chagall left a mural in the church (from 1911). Wikipedia says quite a few famous people spent some time there. I’d like to spend some more time there myself.
So the hopscotch is in Vence.
And then the innermost layer is a room divider at Ruby Foo’s in Times Square in New York. I took the photo in 2011, apparently it shut down in 2015. But the room divider was made from Mah Jong tiles, which was great – I still have mah jong tiles in my attic awaiting an appropriate use! Because they are plastic (well at least these ones are) drilling them is difficult with my dremel, so they’ll have to be inset in some way (a niche, concrete, glue?).
The colours are pleasing, although if I were to do it again I’d probably make each bay a single colour (these were more or less randomly generated on my printer, so that’s why it’s a tad random!). I’ve begun to think of each book as a maquette: if ever I wanted to make a perfect book, using a laser cutter and an expensive printer, I’ve got so many maquettes now!
