I first started thinking about the Eurythmy figures a several years ago when a friend lamented that they were so hard to find in the US. I looked at several examples and wondered, How hard can it be to make them? Well, little did I know.
After thinking about it on and off for quite some time, I decided to go ahead and make a bunch. It made little sense to just do one, so I undertook to do 15 complete sets on the theory that some things are more easily done at scale. For source material I first got volume K26 from the German complete works, a folio of Steiner’s sketches for the Eurythmy Figures. Shortly thereafter volume K26a was released, a folio of photographs of early examples of the Eurythmy Figures, including some that are purportedly partially painted by Rudolf Steiner himself. This came with a helpful booklet with a bit of history behind the Eurythmy Figures and the early attempts.
Making the Eurythmy Figures as a practical project requires selecting the materials, cutting the wood, and then painting the figures. Each of these steps presented practical challenges. For making the wooden shapes I concluded that a laser cutter would be the most practical way to approach the task of creating dozens of identical figures. To set up the tool required hand drawing the outlines of all 35 figures by hand in black ink and then translating these to instructions the laser cutter could follow. I also had to source high-quality plywood and then experiment to get the right settings in order to cut all the way through the wood without unnecessarily scorching it. I eventually found a reliable source for the same type of high quality Baltic Birch plywood that Steiner and his collaborators used in the 1920s.
Painting the figures likewise required a lot of experimentation. I wanted an archival quality pigment that would not fade, that could be applied in semi-translucent layers, and that would allow the wood grain to show. I eventually settled on Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay India Inks, some applied full strength and many mixed and diluted to various degrees. Then for each figure I had to work out what the color indications meant and how to mix them properly.
The project ended up taking considerably more time than I had anticipated. In all I ended up working nearly 18 months on and off to get the first batch of 15 sets completed. That is 525 individual figures painted by hand. I am now able to offer sets for sale, as well as blanks for those who wish to try for themselves.
Daniel Hindes