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This was written in
2007
so is now very dated
|
Chapters |
Counting Pane had set us a problem that we continued to toy with. We had resorted to cheating to fit the stripes into the squares whilst trying to make them equally spaced. We were now looking at the different ways a square could be split into equal parts, still using only 45 and 90 degree angles. To show some of what we had been doing we made twelve large squares, each divided into a different number of equal pieces (with only a little bit of cheating where it wouldn’t quite work out). Dividing anything into equal pieces is the first step to learning about fractions. The first square showed one whole, the next showed halves, the next thirds, and so on. It was intended for young children so the colours were very bright. The squares were split into bright green and bright yellow sections. The borders between the squares were again navy blue, which always seems, to me, to bring out the other colours much better than black, which might seem to be a more obvious neutral choice. Black seems to drain the other colours, navy does not. Other dark colours such as bottle green, brown or purple can work well. We try to steer clear of the pale neutral shades such as white, cream or beige because they would always look dirty when our hangings are touched by so many little hands.
This fraction hanging originally had a name that I can no longer remember. It got the name of Equal Parts under rather strange circumstances.
I wanted to contact Bob Field, the author of the mosaic book that had been the inspiration for the Sea God jacket, but I had lost his address. I knew I could reach him through his publisher so wrote a letter, enclosed some photographs, sealed the envelope and sent it to the publisher with a covering letter asking that it should be forwarded. A few days later, between Christmas and New Year, the phone rang late one night. On the other end was a rather embarrassed man who didn’t know quite where to begin. It transpired that he was the publisher and, for some reason that he didn’t understand himself, he had opened the envelope with the photographs. He was so impressed with Equal Parts that he wanted to use it as a poster for use in schools. We had no time to think about it as his catalogue was going to press immediately after the Christmas break and he needed to know whether it would be in there or not. Naturally, we agreed. He asked if we could redraw it in a format that the printers’ computer system could use. Again we agreed. He phoned back a couple of hours later to say that he no longer needed us to redraw it as he had done it himself and it was ready to go. All he had changed was the name. That poster is still being sold to primary schools and we often walk into schools and see it hanging there. Few teachers make the link between that and us, even though our names are printed on the bottom.
11a. EQUAL PARTS