One of my favorite ways to build a manually released Rolling Ball Sculpture is to make it semi-automatic. Load up the long queue at the top with a bunch of marbles – the more the better – and let one or a few out onto the tracks. This one has three tracks, a tall vertical zig-zag, a loop d’ loop, and the long track with a flat spiral, some horizontal zig-zag tracks and some nice back and forth action. The magic happens when the balls’ reach the bottom and press on the handle. It is connected to the ring at the top which in turn releases a ball for every ball that reaches the end. You can have just one going at a time – and this can make the sculpture run for almost 16 minutes all by itself. Or to see a bit more action, release a couple to roll together. Each one that reaches the bottom releases another – no motor required – just gravity. 1″ colorful glass marbles.

100% stainless steel, TIG welded.