This was the first of a pair of very large, floor-standing rolling ball sculptures that now live together in Georgia. Measuring approximately 7.5 feet high, 8 feet wide and 15 inches deep, the sculpture has four separate tracks and enough room for some unusually large kinetic elements.
One of my favorite mechanisms is the multi-ball release at the upper left. Seven balls collect in a row and wait. When the eighth arrives, it takes a separate path around the side and strikes a lever that releases the first waiting ball. That ball triggers the next, and the process continues until all eight are released one after another. The sudden group of balls creates a burst of activity as they follow the same path through a spiral, mix together on a small flat plate, enter another narrow spiral, and finally reach a large bowl. There they circle around until each ball randomly drops through the center and continues on its way.
A large, nearly circular loop-d-loop commands the center of the sculpture. A circular loop requires considerably more approach speed than the elliptical loops I normally build, so this one needed a particularly long ramp. After completing the first large loop, the ball enters progressively smaller loops that turn back through one another, creating a pretzel-like section of track.
And that's only one of the loop-d-loop sections. Another uses a much tighter pretzel configuration that sends the ball around, back and through itself very quickly. The final section is a stretched series of loops that become progressively smaller before the ball shoots out the end.
Another major element is a tall, narrow spiral nearly 6 feet high. At this scale, elements that would normally dominate one of my smaller sculptures can become just one part of a much larger composition.
This sculpture also contains an element I've built only once in my many years of making rolling ball sculptures: a tipping arm approximately 4 feet tall. The heavily counterweighted arm catches a ball near the top and slowly tips backward through a long, gentle arc. As the arm approaches horizontal, the ball shifts to a lower position inside the catch, changing the balance between the ball and counterweight. The arm then slowly returns to vertical and releases the ball back onto the track.
The size of this sculpture allows for unusually long runs of track and several large mechanisms operating at the same time. With balls traveling through four different paths, there is almost always something happening somewhere within the 8-foot-wide frame.
See the YouTube video to watch this large rolling ball sculpture in motion.
As always, 100% stainless steel, TIG welded.
