Just a simple thing compared to the epic works of art and engineering seen elsewhere in this thread, but it pleases me and that is enough.
Don't even have a name for it, but I trapped a bunch of small bearing balls between a couple sheets of acrylic, so they are free to move but only in 2 dimensions.
It is so relaxing to handle, it's a hefty thing with around 4500 2mm balls in it. I like holding it on my lap and swishing around until I manage to form them into a single lattice. As the thousands of little balls roll, they make a sound that is the mix of raining, a stream, or a million Lego pieces being dug through.
While building it with my dad, we weren't sure how to fix the acrylic plates together, so we used some double-sided tape. My dad raised the board before his eyes, but a terrifying crack was heard, and the smile that was on his face turned into a frown at the exact same rate the level of the balls dropped from the frame.
We spent the next 2 hours sweeping his workshop to retrieve all the balls, and then fixed it with double sided tape, glue, and an outer "framing" of a fabric tape which is really good under tension.
Don't even have a name for it, but I trapped a bunch of small bearing balls between a couple sheets of acrylic, so they are free to move but only in 2 dimensions.
It is so relaxing to handle, it's a hefty thing with around 4500 2mm balls in it. I like holding it on my lap and swishing around until I manage to form them into a single lattice. As the thousands of little balls roll, they make a sound that is the mix of raining, a stream, or a million Lego pieces being dug through.
There is a video of it here: https://twitter.com/kroltan/status/1385386058913832963
While building it with my dad, we weren't sure how to fix the acrylic plates together, so we used some double-sided tape. My dad raised the board before his eyes, but a terrifying crack was heard, and the smile that was on his face turned into a frown at the exact same rate the level of the balls dropped from the frame.
We spent the next 2 hours sweeping his workshop to retrieve all the balls, and then fixed it with double sided tape, glue, and an outer "framing" of a fabric tape which is really good under tension.