ABOUT THE MATTER COLLECTION

Mathematics is usually something you read about. These are the exceptions.

Matter Collection makes the shapes that only make sense in your hand. An oloid rolls along a path no wheel can trace, touching every point of its own surface as it goes. A solid of constant width holds the same width in every direction without being a sphere. You can prove both on paper. You understand them about four seconds after picking one up.

The shapes are real, not decorative

Every piece in the collection is an actual object from geometry, with a discoverer and a date. Paul Schatz found the oloid in 1929, formed from two congruent circles set in perpendicular planes, each passing through the other's center. The sphericon, the hexasphericon, the solid of constant width, and the anti-oloid each solve a different problem in the same family.

We do not invent shapes, and we do not add one to the collection because it would sell. If it is here, it exists in the literature, and it does something no other form does.

How they are made

We machine every piece to order in our workshop in Shenzhen, China. Nothing is held in bulk, and nothing is drop-shipped from a catalog.

These forms are unusually difficult to machine. An oloid has a single continuous developable surface with no flat sections and super sharp edges, which means there is nowhere for a tool to rest and nothing to hide a mistake behind. A deviation you could not see on a cube reads immediately as a wobble in the roll. Each piece is cut on a 5-axis CNC machine from solid metal and held to within 0.1 mm.

Finishing takes three stages. Two are done by machine. The last one is done by hand, because the final surface is the one thing a machine cannot judge. The result is either a brushed or a mirror-polished face, and both are the metal itself rather than a coating.

Every piece is then rolled on a flat surface and inspected before packing. If a piece does not roll true, it does not ship.

Materials

Solid stainless steel, brass, copper, and aluminum. The weight in your hand is the material itself, which is why a piece the size of a plum weighs what it does.

Brass and copper are living surfaces. They warm in tone, take fingerprints, and develop a patina over the years. That is the metal doing what metal does, and it reverses whenever you want it to. See Care.

As seen on Law & Order

Our pieces have appeared on screen in Law & Order, chosen by a set decorator for the same reason our customers choose them. They look like the possession of someone who thinks for a living.

Why the collection stays small

Only so many shapes are worth making. We would rather machine six of them properly than sixty of them adequately. If you want to know how a piece is made, or why a particular shape behaves the way it does, write to us at hello@mattercollection.com, and you will get a real answer within two business days.