Several years ago, I created a data art project dedicated to my 10 years of travel. I gathered the data, devised an interesting encoding system, and hand-drew the project with markers:
My Travels.

But since then, I wanted to improve it! The project looked like a blueprint for something tangible, perhaps a pendant.
So I decided to gather the necessary materials and bring the project to life as a physical data art piece!

The hardest part was making rings of different colors and sizes. Initially, I considered crafting them from clay, wood, or plastic—either buying or producing them myself. I even thought about epoxy resin, but given that I needed about 130 rings, the task seemed daunting.

The data in the project is encoded as follows:

• 10 vertical lines represent 10 years;
• 4 vertical sectors represent the seasons;
• Ring size (number of rings) indicates the duration of travel;
• Ring color represents the region visited;
• Elements above and below the rings, their color and shape, signify transportation type, accommodation, companions, and number of people;
• Fishing line color indicates year-specific features;
• A red petal represents a child.

You can find a detailed legend on the project’s page.

A friend suggested 3D printing the rings and even recommended an expert! I created a blueprint and sent it to the master Vyacheslav.

A month later, the rings were ready (it would have been faster if we hadn’t attempted to sand them).
I selected and purchased a huge variety of beads, while leftover beads from the Climate Bracelet project came in handy!

The assembly process began—I threaded the rings, beads, and seed beads onto fishing lines of different colors. This took several months, as I worked in the evenings with breaks in between.

To secure the rings at varying heights, I interspersed them with small metal crimps (special fasteners for jewelry).

The most challenging part was threading the beads sideways onto the rings. It turned out that the crimps I used would often tear the fishing line when I tried to secure them with crimping pliers.

The process took a couple of months as I experimented with different brands of fasteners, but the issue persisted.

Eventually, I got the hang of it, and the project slowly came together.
However, I realized that using metal crimps to secure rings at different heights was not ideal—they could just as easily snap the fishing line, and reassembling those long "caterpillars" was incredibly time-consuming.

When I reached out to the Flowers and Numbers data art community, I learned I could try epoxy resin instead!

First, I laid out the assembled "years" on the floor and later hung them on a tie and belt rack. It stayed there for quite a while until I gathered the courage to tackle epoxy gluing!

I purchased UV epoxy resin, which cures under sunlight, laid out the entire project on a long table, and arranged it by height. Height in this project corresponds to seasons, making it an important data layer.

Then the Problems Began!
Saint Petersburg is quite a gloomy city, but I thought I’d manage to get the required "40 minutes on a cloudy day" mentioned in the instructions.

But Nothing Worked Out
I applied epoxy resin to the necessary spots to secure the rings at their intended heights, but after three hours, it still hadn’t dried. Then night fell.

Since epoxy resin is toxic and I have a small child at home, I had to seal off the entire kitchen where the project was laid out—for a full day.

I spent the next half-day shining a borrowed UV lamp from my neighbor onto the rings. It was very weak, but it was all I had.

After the project dried, most of the rings fell off and slid back down to the lower level.

The project hung in the window for a couple more weeks. Then I gathered my courage again, and once my child was asleep, I enlisted my husband’s help. Together, we secured the fallen rings with tape and glue, working until one in the morning!

But in the end, the project looked presentable. I also attached it to a special driftwood branch we had sourced from the bay during a summer trip with a colleague from the community—a wonderful adventure!

I did wish the branch was white, but the one that fit best was gray. Acrylic markers came to the rescue!

And now we see the project in its final form. I also plan to create a physical legend for it and add the final touches to the branch.
I’d love to do a beautiful photoshoot in sunny light, but in such a gloomy city, it’s all about luck...

My little 3-year-old daughter really likes all these rings and beads. So I had to share the leftovers with her so she could create something similar.

Now she has her own box of beads and a set of rings. If I want to create the project legend, I’ll have to negotiate!

In the future, I’d love to make this project interactive—by attaching a tiny QR code to the back of each ring, linking to a photo gallery for each trip!

What do you think of this idea? It would be so heartfelt!