Chinlone Garden Orbs

In 1954 my political scientist father returned from a year in Burma with three wicker chinlone balls. I was six years old. They fascinated me. I enjoyed looking at them almost as much as kicking them.

These orbs are spherical projections of an icosiedodecahedron, the Archimedean Solid composed of 20 equilateral triangles and 12 regular pentagons. I am not alone with my fascination. Though Archimedes's original treatise was lost, all 12 of his solids were rediscovered by renaissance mathematicians and artists. More recently Buckminster Fuller studied these 6 great circles each divided by the others into ten equal arcs.

Orbs are powder coated to withstand environmental elements with a clear UV protective finish.

- Christopher Thomson