ferns

The Barnsley fern looks like a real fern, but its form is actually generated from a sequence of random numbers fed into an algorithm. You can see an example of this generation process here.

Dylan Thurston connected us with Melissa Freilich at the Ann Arbor Civic Theater, who was directing Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia. Because of the fractal themes in the play, Melissa wanted to create images of large fractal ferns, known as Barnsley ferns, for the set. We worked with her to determine the scale, and after some thinking, came up with the idea of creating a set of chipboard stencils that her set crew could use to paint 24 foot ferns.

We first generated the image of the fern. Then we edge-traced it in Illustrator, blew it up, and lasercut the stencils. Here is the stencil laid out on our workshop floor:

And this is how the set looked:

We often use the Barnsley Fern for a craft theme, such as this felt fern

and this tea towel print, both created by Heidi.