Weavers of beads use a needle and thread to sew beads together to make decorative objects including jewelry, wall hangings, sculptures, and baskets. Some bead weave designers weave beads into composite clusters, usually with at least one large hole, called beaded beads. Mathematically, many beaded beads can be viewed as polyhedra, with each bead (or, more precisely, the hole through the middle of each bead, which provides its orientation) corresponding to an edge of the polyhedron. Different weaving patterns will bring different numbers of these "edges" together to form the vertices of the polyhedron. So it is very natural to use various polyhedra as the inspiration for beaded bead designs. Mathematics, including geometry, symmetry, and topology, is an inspiration for the structure of these woven bead creations. Across cultures and continents, humans show a natural affinity towards the aesthetic of pattern and order, and this art form appeals to this aesthetic in a tactile, tangible form. --- Gwen L. Fisher, Ph.D., California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo, and beAd Infinitum (www.beadinfinitum.com)

I'm always fascinated by things that are symmetric. In symmetrical things we see beauty and thereby mathematics. It is therefore a quest and adventure for an inquisitive mind to go deeper and deeper to study the building blocks of things that are symmetric. The images that I produce show the ubiquity of mathematics and how mathematics is a key to understand the nature that we live in, in particular, and how it unlocks the secrets of our universe in general.
The usual elementary functions and their compositions can generate sophisticated graphs which are shown. The structures (or patterns) are superimpositions of polar surfaces resulted from several compositions of tilts and turns on the coordinate axes in three dimensions. When they are viewed from a different turn and tilt they generate a totally different, fascinating structure.
The structures are a few from my collection, which numbers more than 70. For those who are interested to see them, check my website and click on the gallery button.

---Dejenie A. Lakew, Virginia State University

I love experimenting in the fuzzy overlap between art, mathematics, and programming. The computer is my canvas, and this is algorithmic artwork--a partnership mediated not by the brush or pencil but by the shared language of software. Seeking to extract and visualize the beauty that I glimpse beneath the surface of equations, I create custom interactive programs and use them to explore algorithms, and ultimately to generate artwork.

In the world of chaotic dynamical systems, minute changes in initial conditions produce radically different results. The interface of my software gives me hooks into the algorithms and allows me to exert some control. But there is always tension - between the computer and me, between simplicity and complexity, and between problem solving and spontaneity.

Art and mathematics, the right brain and the left, are inextricably linked in this work. My art depends on mathematics, yet simultaneously illuminates and unravels its beauty. I am an explorer who uncovers something extraordinary, bringing into view that which was always there to be discovered.

---Nathan Selikoff