two by four

My first attempt at cutting a 2x4 at least 5 times and putting it back together, creating a system, with no fasteners.

Bending the wood using tension to hold the pieces together.

My Second rendition.  Here I cut the wood like in my first attempt and then cut the strips in half.  I was trying to change the scale of the piece and see what would happen.  I quickly found out that the decreased width made the wood more britle.

This is a top view.  Many of the wood pieces started snapping and at one point the entire system seemed to just pop or explode.  So I decided to take this cue and put the wood together using this idea.

Here is a close up of the exploded section.

Here you can see just how much I pushed the wood pieces.  Creating a rather dramatic curve or arc.  Tension is still the binding idea for the system.

My third Rendition.  I wanted to push the limits of the wood even more.  I started with the same width of wood as in my first rendition.  Then ripped the depth of the wood off of each side.  Creating two square pieces and one thin rectangle from each slat.  I started weaving them together in the same fashion as the previous two.  About half of the wood pieces were snapping in half.  So I started bending each piece and letting it snap where it wanted to and decided to put all that together.

Here is a close up of a tension fitting.  Since the wood pieces were snapped in half I didn't have longer pieces to work with.

Here is a view of the piece standing on it's side.  The entire piece is held together by tension and created a very sturdy structure.

Here is another view standing up lengthwise showing the strength of the system.  I arranged the pieces from long to short.

Here is my fourth rendition.  I finally figured out what would and would not work with the wood. 

Here is a top view.  There is a regular pattern and refinement exhibited.

Here are the extra pieces that were left over.  I used them to space out the edges and push the wood as far as I could.