Fat and Skinny

George W. Hart

These guys are called Fat and Skinny.  They are made of walnut, maple, and brass, 23 inches tall on the bases.  Both are constructed from the same components: 12 regular pentagons, 30 squares, 20 equilateral triangles, and 6 golden rhombi, but they are arranged differently.  In both cases, 6 pentagons, 12 squares, and 12 triangles produce a spray of "cilia" (arranged around the "equator" relative to the vertical 3-fold axis of symmetry).  In each case, the dark components are the pentagons and triangles, and they fit together as an icosidodecahedron.  The light components (squares and rhombi) are arranged along three "equators" of the icosidodecahedron in both cases.  However, there are two different ways to choose three of the six equators, and that is how they differ.
I wanted to achieve two very different "personalities" with the same geometric components and that effect came out well.  I began thinking of them as two well-known movie critics and was surprised when my niece perspicaciously told me they might better be called "Plain and Peanut."


copyright 1999, George W. Hart