Samira Mian
Artists, Geometers & Mathematicians
There is an amazing community of artists who create art, sell products and also teach or tutor Islamic Geometric Patterns or other related art forms from Illumination to Calligraphy to Sacred Geometry.
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London
Artist, graphic designer & teacher with a wide range of skills analogue and digital. Ameet has shared a fair amount of his extensive analsysis and instruction via social media & his blog and teaches regularly at the PSTA as well as working on commissions.
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​London
Esra has studied Islamic illumination with several tutors around the world, building up her knowledge of patterns and experience in the methods & traditions of Islamic Illumination. She teaches in London, Manchester and online via her online courses and YouTube channel and also makes beautiful paints: bristleandbrush.co.uk
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London
A Lebanese artist based in London, with many talents from working with natural pigments to creating beautiful handmade items of wonder and beauty. She also has several resources for constructing patterns on:
https://tutsplus.com/authors/joumana-medlej
The eightfold rosette has the wrong proportions, but all other Islamic Geometric Patterns are perfectly proportioned with some patterns from other traditions and art forms included - a wealth of resources!
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London
Artist & researcher with experience in both the analogue and digital, creating a wide range of art in the form of laser cut patterns, light art, paintings and sculptures. ALso teaching in and around London.
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London
Artist, author and PSTA Tutor with extensive teaching experience at the PSTA and outreach work in their international centres. Also authored the beautiful Curves book published by Wooden books.
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London
Artist with a full time job, who still manages to offer beautiful cards, prints and original artwork for sale via her website.
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Netherlands
Watercolour artist and geometer with an extensive portfolio based on her many travels and study trips.
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Doha, Qatar
Artist and graphic designer with experience in both the analogue and digital, teaching how to draw Islamic Geometric patterns regularly at VCU in Qatar.
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Berkshire, UK
Traditional artist and geometer with an interest in many traditional art forms. Occasionally teaches at Ardington School of Crafts.
​Surrey, UK
Traditional artist with a distinct portfolio in geometry, calligraphy and islimi/tehzip. Also occasioally teaching in and around London.
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Italy
Artist with a penchant for drawing and painting miniature Islamic Geometric Patterns. Has lead a few workshops in teh summer of 2019.
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Ricardo Hinojosa/Kamikyodai
Mexico
Ricardo offers workshops/zoom sessions on paper folding, origami & Islamic origami as well as producing amazing 3D art of his own. It's fascinating to see the insight people have gained by learning about compass & straight edge constructions through just folding paper with Ricardo.
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Rajen has posted many detailed step by step tutorials on some amazing and unusual patterns - it's so good to see more complex ones that arent shared elsewhere.
​In particular, I return to a pattern from Madrassa Attarine, This pattern has been published widely and done so incorrectly. So with many thanks to Rajen, we can now fix the inconsistences in the rosettes surrounding the central rosette.
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Pattern Artist, Islamic Geometry, Origami, Mathematics and natural forms. Creates amazing pieces and paper and offers tuition too.
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If all things to do with Mathematics & Art is your thing, then I have to mention three friends two especially from Twitter who have created abundant resources on their websites, challenges and hashtags to inspire and motivate people to get creating!
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Clarissa Grandi - www.artfulmaths.com
Suffolk, UK
Clarissa also teaches online courses and published a book with many super activities to work through: Artful Maths Work Book, the book is available with a teacher guide too.
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Annie Perkins - www.arbitrarilyclose.com
Minneapolis, USA
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Alabama, USA
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All have a Maths teaching background, which really feeds into how well they communicate. So I have to mention Manuel who is producing books to help ups discover, know and draw the patterns of Andalusia.
See his books on my book page and also follow him on Social media: Manuel Martinez Vela
Online Reference Resources
An extensive archive of images of patterns in situ from around the world. As well as drawings, diagrams & analyses and earlier published materials.
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This excellent database has three aims:
Provide a comprehensive collection of high quality images of geometric tiling patterns; Provide a means of locating images by means of their geometric properties; Provide an authoritative source for such patterns.
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Places to Learn in Person
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London based & worldwide
Founded in 2008 by Adam Williamson and Richard Henry, AOIP offer courses and workshops on Islamic Art & Design in London and on international study trips to a variety of locations, including Istanbul, Fez, Granada and Cairo as well as visits to USA and Australia.
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London based with Centres worldwide
The Prince’s Foundation, School of Traditional Arts was founded in 2004 by HRH The Prince of Wales. It developed from the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Programme (VITA) established at The Royal College of Art in 1984 by Professor Keith Critchlow. The PSTA's Open Programme offers lectures, workshops and short, practical courses in traditional arts and crafts. Other centres:
​Jameel House of Traditional Arts / Cairo
Azerbaijan, Baku: Icherisheher Centre for Traditional Arts
Jameel House of Traditional Arts / Jeddah
Karachi – The VM Centre for Traditional Arts
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Sussex, UK
SAOG run short courses and symposia in the practice and philosophy of Sacred Geometry and the arts of the Quadrivium at SAOG Studios and Emerson College in Sussex, UK and worldwide.
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Istanbul, Turkey
Hosts a wide range of classes & courses, but is now the base for Mohamad AlJanabi, who runs courses there regularly.
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Birmingham, UK
Hasret Brown, one of the first artists I came across, so very talented and experienced, has held workshops in Birmingham, taught adult & children in groups as well as one to one tutoring.
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Birmingham, UK
Safira Ali, another talented and experienced artist, who has held many workshops in Birmingham and also is an amazing calligrapher!
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www.instagram.com/antaramotifs/
India
Antara Biswas, an amazing Waterartist and geometer, follow to look out for her online classses for drawing and painting Geometry
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UAE
Nasmiya Shabnam, has been teaching online and guiding beginners through the Islamic Arts. Follow to see when the next batch is and also for other learning opportunities in the UAE
Facebook Groups & Pages
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Drawing Islamic Geometric Designs
Alan Adams created this group as a place to share information and instruction on Islamic Geometric Design. An excellent forum where patterns & constructions are shared and discussed. Note also the file section where you can find many construction PDFs which teach how to draw patterns. Alan has created a website where all his resources can now be found:
www.drawingislamicgeometricdesigns.com
Analysis of the islamic geometric designs
Ayman Soliman created this group to share his and others analysis of Islamic geometric patterns and design.
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Mohamad Aljanabi's Zakhrafa school
A wonderful opportunty to learn from someone who clearly has a wealth of authentic and indepth knowledge. Many videos and step by step PDFs have been posted already.
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YouTube Channels
There are alot of videos on Youtube and some very popular ones have spread construction & poor proportion errors widely. So the below are my recommendations:
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Manuel Martínez Vela / Con Regla y Compás
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İstanbul Tasarım Merkezi Istanbul Design Center
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