One of my summer my art history classes is French Gothic Cathedrals: Chartres, Reims, and Amiens. Tomorrow we’ll be out on the green, laying out the apse end of a Gothic cathedral, using a rod (okay, 1/2 rod, out of PVC), hemp string (okay, nylon), and stakes. Bonus homework for tomorrow is to draw a decagon on graph paper using only a compass and straight edge. I’m not a good instructions reader, I guess: I drew mine on plain paper with a compass and square. I had a blast. I’ve made a PDF of the above diagram with step-by-step instructions that you can download from this link or from my experimentation website.
Calligraphy & more — the studio of Beth Lee, Bozeman, MT