Rolling Ball Sculpture 17.5
Background: It all begins with an message, my client had a pretty tight space constraint but still wanted an interesting wall mounted sculpture for his media room. There was only 7.5 inches to work with behind his fold down tv but we still wanted to make it fun and satisfying. We wound up going with a rectangular steel frame with a chain drive to make it as slim and reliable as possible.
When given the dimensions this was the frame design I thought of, turning the steel frame tubes into bent flowing organic shapes. The frame is just as much a part of the overall vision and sculpture as the track and features included.
The initial vision
Commissioned by client in Virginia And delivered June 9th 2026
Details: While only being 7.5 inches thick we utilized his full space being almost 4’ by 5’. It features an tastefully backlit flowing steel frame with a chain driven motor on the left side perpetually bringing marbles to the top, with a motor speed adjustment knob on the bottom left.
$4,000
Coming off the chain lift are two splitters, the track coming off the first splitter naturally rolls through the frame beams before entering a weighted dropper which separates the 2 marbles that enter. I used a new hanging marble weight on the backside of the dropper to fit in the tight dimensional restraints. Coming out of the dropper to the right is a track that utilizes many spirals and a new slow spin feature that the marble spins in for several seconds before continuing on. Coming from the left is a track that leads into a triple marble collector which when activated sends 3 marbles at a time meandering through various features such as my single marble dropper which adds kinetic motion in a slim profile.
Rolling off the second splitter are two contrasting tracks, one shoots down a ten tuplet (however you say 10 loops) loop de loop before backspinning and slowing down on the tracks that roll back and forth into the chain lift. The second track meanders through the steel frame entering spirals and wavy track.
Shipping
A challenge when making sculptures this large is shipping them. At this size normal shipping carriers are not an option, so I utilized a freight company together with my client.
To safely ship it I wound up making a custom wooden crate reinforced with 2×4s, which is a service I provide for all large sculptures and commissions to ensure safe travel!
