Its a project that was 35 years in the making, but Scott Weaver has created the largest kinetic sculpture made out over 100,000 toothpicks and Elmer’s glue– its a series of ball runs that takes you on a miniature tour of San Francisco, titled “Rolling Through the Bay.” The tour takes you through iconic San Francisco landmarks, familiar neighborhoods, and a few personal mentions from Scott Weaver’s family history (such as his grandfather’s brewery), spanning 9 feet tall, 7 feet wide, and 30 inches deep. From his website:
Rolling through the bay is an abstract toothpick sculpture of San Francisco. It has about 100,000 of toothpicks. The amazing part, is that is has four ping pong ball paths that roll through different landmarks of San Francisco. I have spent about 3000 hours on it over a period of 34 years and the only glue I use is Elmer’s.
I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding.
If the photos haven’t been impressive enough, this video of the ball runs should really wow you:
Scott Weaver’s Rolling through the Bay from Learning Studio on Vimeo.
You can see the entire photoset on Scott Weaver’s Flickr here, or see the sculpture in person at the Tinkering Studio in San Francisco. [Via This Is Colossal.]
