Bringing the Fibonacci Sequence to Gala

This March is Post Oak’s Biennial Gala, and a group of High School students has worked tirelessly to create a unique art piece to represent the High School for the highly anticipated auction. Using a plethora of wooden planks and veneers, they created a Nautilus shell with a logarithmic spiral known as the Fibonacci sequence.

Following numerous creative and visionary proposals for the project (including a golden golf cart), the group decided the project would preferably be rooted in nature. The idea of creating a wooden shell was agreed upon, and the educational element soon followed. Before purchasing any material, the students held planning meetings to devise a clear outline for the project. A crucial part of this was carefully designing the Fibonacci shell with Adobe Illustrator to determine the exact proportions of all the project’s pieces. Once the design was approved by Mr. Grisbee, the group’s supervisor and mathematician extraordinaire, a trip to purchase the necessary materials at Rockler Woodworking was in order. With the materials now in hand, it was time to start putting it all together.

The first step was to glue the veneer, which are thin slices of wood used for decoration, onto the wooden planks. Then, using the proportions they had calculated in Adobe Illustrator, the students carefully cut out the veneer-wrapped planks using a laser cutter. Because the cuts had to be extremely precise, some planks ended up being entirely redone since some cuts were slightly off. 

Once this time-intensive step was completed, they painted the edges of the wood and then assembled the entire shell. Since the wooden planks had been cut to perfection, the assembly was actually surprisingly straightforward and painless. One student described this step as the most rewarding part of the entire experience since it was satisfying to see all their hard work finally come together.

Although the planks had been assembled, the piece was still incomplete. The students stained the wood to clearly indicate the different sections of the spiral as well as to add color to the wooden planks. According to one student, the entire art piece “came to life” once the colors were added. The final step was to decorate the shell by adding a layer of glass to ensure the Fibonacci shell is a project worthy of being presented to Post Oak parents. The group unanimously agreed that all their hard work paid off once they saw the finished product, and they’re excited to see which parent(s) will bid on the shell they dedicated so much of their time and effort to create.

This is one of two Gala art projects being made by Post Oak High School students this year, so make sure you read the Post next week to see a deep dive into the other project.