Tag Archives: Rolling Ball Sculpture

This is getting ridiculous

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I remember about two years ago when I started doing these things I was reading someone’s online account of building rolling ball sculptures. He had a photo up of one part of the process, some copper clamped up in a vise with a bunch of wood, and the accompanying text said something like, “I have built clamps to hold sections of track so that I can solder them appropriately.” I remember thinking, “No way, man, not me. I’m not going to get that involved. That guy is obviously going much further than I’m going to go. That’s kind of ridiculous, all that effort just to solder one joint.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: a photo of me having achieved the ridiculous. (For the record, it worked, and nothing less than this conglomeration of clamps, wood, and wire would have made it possible.)

They just can’t be straight!

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I find it kind of impossible to do certain things with sculpture. Aside from the first one I ever did, none of them have had support legs that were straight. Every one following that first one has had curved legs. They just look nice to me like that, and they seem to fit with the feel of the curves and the motion of the marbles. These were the same way. I could have knocked them out in no time flat if I’d made simply straight pieces, but I spent an evening bend things up. I just…can’t…make them straight! NO!

Will it roll?

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I have been asked whether I play with these things when they’re done, and the answer is yes. However, I spend a LOT of time playing with them during the build process. This is one of those times. I had a bunch of stuff clamped in place and I was rolling the marble through seeing if it would get from one spot to the next without falling off and rolling under the water heater into a small collection of sawdust and cobwebs.

So uncomplicated, it’s ridiculous

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You’d think I’d have all kinds of crazy tools and whatnot sitting around to help me make these things, but such is not the case. What you’re looking at are the basics of what I work with throughout the construction process. Those clips with the black bases – those things are very important! It really would be hard to do a lot without them. Those are called “third hands” in the biz. Model makers and crafters use them to basically just hold stuff still while it’s being worked on. You’ll notice a couple of pairs of Vice Grips, which I don’t mind plugging here, because they generally are made of awesome, although here they are performing the rather mundane task of simply being heavy and holding one end of the sculpture still and upright while I goof with other stuff. I use them for their intended purpose quite often, however, when soldering things in place or bending wire. The other tools just amount to various kinds of pliers, a hammer, wire cutters, and some soldering tools, maybe a few large clamps on occasion. Oh, and let’s not forget the all-important Sharpie marker. I use that thing ALL. THE. TIME. I sometimes think it’s one of the most important tools I have. This stuff isn’t fancy by any stretch, but it gets the job done.

It’s rather simple, really.

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Want to make endless loops and turns and bends and ramps of wire? Take a long piece of wire, bend it into a “U” at one end, and how you’re started! Just, you know, bend it some more. Or, really, if you’re into minimalism, I guess you could just go with what we have here and call it good. I tend to complicate things a bit, though. I’m weird like that.

Solo Spiral Sculpture Completed!

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I had a long weekend this weekend, and I used it to my fullest advantage – I did art work! The idea for this series of small sculptures has been brewing for months now. It’s actually part of a meme from Facebook, and I think I accepted the challenge sometime back in…July? August? After that I had a lot of other projects in the pipeline, but didn’t let go of the idea. They were going to be *really* simple, but then I asked dad if he could whip up some wood bases for them to make them a little nicer. Yeah – I asked a fellow perfectionist to just whip something up. Right! It took a few months, but I think that it was well worth the wait. He made them waaaay nicer than I had asked for! Thanks, pop!

So dad did some awesome bases, but I was still caught up with other stuff. I did manage to bend up some initial elements for the sculptures a month or two ago, just some basic spirals. Finally, however, I was able to get down to the business of actually assembling them once Christmas had passed. Thanks to the long weekend I managed to finish this one.

Here is the first from a series of five that I will be doing:

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As you can see, it’s a rather simple design. Just a basic spiral. It’s a little hard to add much more to something this small, but I tried to do something fun with the ending ramp. The path dips sharply coming out of the spiral, and by the time the marble reaches the end it has built up a good bit of speed. It reaches the upright portion and tries to climb right up it, runs out of steam, and falls back on itself where it comes to rest in the bottom of the “U.”

solospiral3

Above is a fun view of things and kind of gives you an idea of the roller coaster feel it has when it finishes.

solospiral

For a simple piece I think it turned out pretty well. After finishing it I immediately started on another one. I hope to have it completed by the end of the week! I just love finishing projects. It’s so counter to the way I used to live my life where I’d start something, get discouraged, shelve it, and then feel bad about the whole thing. There were some things about this sculpture that didn’t fit my idea of the perfect piece, but I managed to let go of that stuff and just be okay with it. Pretty kickass.

What do I do with this stuff?

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This is how it starts: a piece of wood, a spiral, and a leftover part from a harmonica. You just put them all there on the table and then wait for some kind of genius to strike. I don’t know if genius has ever struck me, but I do end up making stuff. I’ll take what I can get!

Copper Curl

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Ah, THIS is what I’ve been going after. I think this is finally a photo that feels different for me. I guess it’s a lighting thing. It started with the dirty salt shaker, and now we have this. It’s possible that something may finally be happening with my photography. I hope. I don’t know, but I hope! I don’t know quite how I did this (other than a couple of obvious things), but I hope I can do it and do it better further down the road.