Moibus-textured and plain

Jewelry Discussion
1

I think there would be a way to have one continuously textured side
and one continuously plain side on a Moebius strip, at least as it
would need to be made in the real, as opposed to theoretical world.

So far, we are speaking of the strip of metal that we start off with
as having length and width, but not depth. If one were to start off
with a bit of metal of a thick enough gauge, one could then have
what we think of as the top and bottom in the beginning all smooth
and polished, and what we think of as the sides textured, or vice
versa.

One could actually do this with a thick gauge square wire, but it
would be less likely to be viewed as a proper Moebius strip.

Jim Benson

2 
   I think there would be a way to have one continuously textured
side and one continuously plain side on a Moebius strip, at least
as it would need to be made in the real, as opposed to theoretical
world.

Even in the real world, a moebius strip has one side-- and one
edge. If you cut one down the center, you will still have only one
moebius strip, twice as long. There is no way around it-- to see
more than one texture on it, you have to pick a spot to make the
transition. Likewise, you cannot add something to “one” edge, and
expect to have part of it not have the edging, as it has only one
edge. If you don’t believe me, just invest 45 seconds and make one
out of paper!!

–No?

3 
    I think there would be a way to have one continuously textured
side and one continuously plain side on a Moebius  strip. One could
actually do this with a thick gauge square wire, but it would be
less likely to be viewed as a proper Moebius strip.

Jim, I think I understand. You would texture two opposite, parallel
sides of the square wire and leave the other two sides plain. Once
you connect the ends to create the M?ius figure, the two textured
sides of the wire become the one side of the M?ius figure. And what
looks like the plain “side” of the figure is actually the edge of
the strip.

Janet

4

Aha! But it CAN be done (doncha love topology!)!!

To make a mobius strip with two metals such that it is a flowing
ribbon of colors with no stops, it requires two layers of metal.
This may be hard to follow, but bear with me (and wouldn’t it make
beautiful rings and bracelets!)…

Think of four squares from a checkerboard, two by two – black, red
on the top row; red, black on the bottom row. If this is squished,
it is the cross-section of our flat band of metal.

Another way to explain it is – take a strip of paper, like, one by
six inches. Color the right half of the first side “long-ways” (now
you have 1/2in x 6in white on the left, and 1/2in x 6in colored on
the right, which make up the 1in width), then – and here’s the
important part – flip the paper over as if turning the page of a
book (this direction of flipping the paper is very important in
order to get the correct orientation of the paper), and do the EXACT
same thing on the second side (left side white, right side colored).

Now the cross-section, if you could take it, would be white over
colored on the left side, and colored over white on the right side.
Another way to say it is – where the paper is white on one side, it
will be colored on the other.

THEN you take your paper, put a half twist in it, attach the ends
with tape; and you have your wonderful half white, half colored
mobius strip.

And of course it would be even easier with texture and no texture,
because you wouldn’t have to laminate metal!

I suspect that this is the method that someone referred to a couple
of days ago, but without the laborious explaination. I find the
idea very elegant and beautiful, and I’m going to make some as soon
as I have the jewelry part of my studio set up!

Orchid is fun and educational!

–Terri

5 
    Color the right half of the first side "long-ways"     now you
have 1/2in x 6in white on the left, and 1/2in x 6in colored on the
right

Terri, I couldn’t get this to work as written. If you color the right
half of the strip, it will be 1x6 colored on the right, not 1/2x6" .

I suspect that this is the method that someone referred to a
couple of days ago

That was either Noel or I, although neither of us used your
approach.

What I described made use of square wire, which would allow the eye
mistake the edge of the Mabius figure for the face. Just an optical
illusion, and an imperfect one at that, because you would readily
see that the textured side is adjacent to the plain. What Jim
wants is the textured side opposite the plain, which Noel
correctly states is impossible.

Another problem with using square wiRe: It simply wouldn’t resemble
a Mabius figure. The further away you get from using a strip of
metal, the more it resembles an ordinary bangle bracelet. It still
would look nice, but the mathematicians wouldn’t get it. If you take
it even further and use round wire for the Mabius figure, it’s just
a textured band spiralling around the wire, a la candy cane.

Janet

6

During the holidays I thought of a textured Moebius I’d like to
make, but am not sure how to go about it.

The texture would be a gradient, decreasing as you progress along
the loop, then (at the halfway point) increasing again as you return
to the start. At any point, the “front” and “back” sides would have
contrasting textures.

I used Photoshop to color a gradient along both sides of a strip of
paper, then connected the ends to make a Moebius loop. That was so
easy, I’m wondering if there is a software tool to apply texture or
color to metal. Or a software tool to accurately apply resist so the
texture can be etched?

Due to the orange alert, I had to be at the Philadelphia airport
yesterday at 6:30a.m.! Not being a “morning person,” this would have
been a totally barbaric experience but for an exhibit that woke me up
and kept my interest until it was time to board. It was a selection
of ceramics and modern jewelry from the collection of Helen Drutt

www.temple.edu/crafts/public_html/mjcc/local/history/biographies/b46.html

including a brooch made from a band of stainless steel. The brooch
was made by Eva Eisler–anybody familiar with her work? Or with
Helen Williams Drutt?

The band had been bent to form three overlapping loops, so it wasn’t
immediately apparent that the band was also a Moebius strip. I was
wondering why she used a Moebius, since a plain band would make a
nearly identical brooch. Perhaps the twist in the band provides
tension to keep the loops in place?

Janet

7

Hi Janet,

I made a two colour moebius strip during the xmas break, white and
yellow gold, with the join between the two colours cut as a wavy line

  • started with a strip of 1 mm thick yellow, cut wavy bands of .3 mm
    white to fit approx. half the width of the yellow, soldered one each
    side of the yellow, put through the rolling mill, then twisted and
    joined to make the finished strip - worked very well, so I made it
    into a pendant for my partner- he loves it. I think with what you
    want to do, etching might be an option, but have you considered using
    something coloured, such as resin? Then you could make a plain
    moebius, and pait the resin on - this might work well, or maybe using
    a textured strip from wax, sorry if I’m being a bit obvious with
    these suggestions, but I am getting very enthusiastic about all of
    these possibilities :slight_smile:

Christine in Sth Australia.

8 
    I made a two colour moebius strip during the xmas break
Christine,

Cool!–could I see a picture of it?

It occurred to me that infinity symbol could be made by twisting a
Mobius strip. But I guess that would be mixing apples and oranges.

Janet

9 
    Cool!--could I see a picture of it? It occurred to me that
infinity symbol could be made by twisting a Mobius strip. But I
guess that would be mixing apples and oranges.

I didn’t think to take a photo, but I will try to take one when I
can, but I am really pleased with it, and the infinity aspect does
seem to be quite a reasonable ‘link’, which made it all the more
special to give as a gift :slight_smile:

10

Hi Janet,

It occurred to me that infinity symbol could be made by twisting a
Mobius strip. But I guess that would be mixing apples and
oranges."

Actually, a mobius strip, if held like looking at a solitaire ring’s
stone (“front” view - looks like a line, not a circle) viewed from
the twist side closely appoximates the look of an infinity symbol.

(In Celtic design, a mobius strip can also appears as a sort of
twisted corner triangular motif.)

–Terri