This was a HUGE project that was part of an immense undertaking. I spent about three months traveling down to Los Angeles every week to work in a big shop with a whole collection of talented people. I loved working alongside everyone, sharing what I knew how to do and learning from other people as they built their own specific parts of the project.

My rolling ball sculpture was just one part of many very large exhibit pieces being built at the same time. This one stretched about 40 feet and was actually divided into three separate sections—but to everyone watching, it looked and behaved like one large continuous machine.

To start the run, you pressed a button. A tall chain lift carried the ball to the top of a large Christmas tree. The tree itself was made from RBS track, and the ball rolled around and around in ever-widening circles until it finally entered the Surprise House. At that point, the ball dropped through the platform and secretly returned to the bottom of the lift, where it waited out of sight for someone to push the button again.

That action activated the second section. Another lift carried another ball up through a brick tower and into the snowman's head. The ball dropped straight through the snowman and exited into a track splitter, where it could randomly take one side or the other and "activate" the leaf blowers. Once again, the ball eventually disappeared through the floor and secretly returned to the beginning of the second lift.

The leaf blowers then fired up and spun a large ping-pong paddle wheel. The wheel was connected by a chain to the third lift—or at least it looked like it was. The chain and wheel were actually free-spinning and weren't mechanically driving the lift. They were there for the show. The action triggered a hidden motor that powered the real third lift and carried another ball to the top.

From there, the ball dropped into a series of metal pans.

Each pan sent it down to the next one until it finally reached the bottom.

Those pans also gave me one of those last-minute problems that always seem to happen on big projects. The night before opening day, the ball was making it to the correct drain hole only eight times out of ten.

They didn't want me welding inside the exhibit that close to opening, so I pulled the entire pan assembly out to the loading dock. Over the next few hours, I added stainless steel guide tracks to make sure the ball hit each pan correctly and ended up where it belonged.

After that—perfect.

My part of this enormous project was the rolling ball sculpture tracks. The wooden structures, painting, presents, decorations and all the other scenery were created by other members of the team.

And that was probably my favorite part of the whole experience. I got to spend three months working around a bunch of talented people who were all really good at completely different things. Once everything was assembled and you walked into the finished main area, all those separate projects suddenly became one enormous attraction.

It was AWESOME to be a part of.

100% stainless steel, TIG welded.