I had never heard of an oloid until I saw a carving of one by Ken Veal in the Woodcarvers Gazette. It’s a solid geometrical figure invented by an architect, Paul Schatz, and patented in 1930.

 Intrigued, I googled it and discovered that there was such a thing as an anti oloid. I’ve always been rather pro all things anti, or as my wife puts it, just b****** awkward, so I decided to have a go.

I had some difficulty understanding the shape so I made a skeletal maquette with wooden skewers and a glue gun which gave me the confidence to start work on an old yew log I had lying around.

The skeletal maquette

The resulting carving is very tactile. It even rolls across the floor with a pleasing wobbling action just like me!

Thanks Ken.

John Francklow