If you have a young child or a young relative, you're probably plagued by Cuisenaire Rods. Devised by Belgian primary school teacher Georges Cuisenaire and his wife in the 1920s (they called them "réglettes"), colour coded modular rods can actually be an attractive and fun aid to learn maths.
While I don't have anything against them, up until a few decades ago teachers had one box of rods per class, while nowadays educators often encourage each kid to have their own boxes. This means that, once they finish the first two or three years of primary school, the Cuisenaire Rods are either passed onto another member of the family or a friend who needs them or they end up haunting your house or hiding in forgotten corners of school rooms. So what to do with random and abandoned Cuisenaire Rods?
Start with accessories: this plastron-like necklace, made with a felt base and a leather surface cut in an oval shape, recycles a few colour coded modular rods, but it is actually inspired by buildings characterised by a surface broken by blocks of colours such as the Shanti cinema in India, mixed with Malevich's Suprematist compositions and Alfredo Hlito's "Chromatic Rhythms II" painting.
Since the history of colour-number ideas goes back to Babylon and the sacred book of numbers, the Kabbalah, the symbolism behind such a piece could be wider. Not bad for a necklace made by recycling bits and pieces of things lying around the house.
A final puzzle for you, if white = 1; red = 2; green = 3; crimson = 4; yellow = 5; black = 7; blue = 9 and orange = 10, what's the final sum for this necklace?
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