Rubberband man

Nearly 5 metres of wooden dowel were waiting to be transformed, for weeks. I wanted to build to tensegrity sphere, as precursor for a model of an eye. I found a great demonstration how to do this, yet it meant a departure from my prior ways of attaching the tension elements.

Many small models made of units that combine a tensile and compressive element, which basically offers a bit more flexibility than the 'tension loops' I used before. The loops, on the other hands, reflect some of the 'Great circles' created by rotation.

Like so often, I departed a bit from the original measurements, using thicker dowels makes the sphere less 'airy' than the model in the youtube video. The biggest challenge was precision this time, I had to saw a groove to hold the string at both ends of the dowels.

Using my new Dremel, I went through some cutting blades, luckily wearing goggles that saved me from the first violently disintegrating blade. I still haven't got the proper gizmo for wood cutting, and the different blades I used produced different wide and deep grooves. Also, I didn't glue the strings to the dowels, so some became easily undone.

My first attempts to assemble the sphere failed badly. Most grooves were so wide that the strings slipped out easily, so after some frustrating trials I called it a day. I had made 32 elements (the sphere needs 30), and wondered if I could use them for something, at the same time thinking about simple solutions to overcome the slipperyness.

Again, rubber bands saved my day. The models I build with them deteriorate quite fast, but as temporary solution they worked wonders. I secured each connection between the units with a rubber band, and, voila, I could follow the demonstration video nearly step by step to success. Unfortunately, this went much faster than my camera batteries recharged. Before I'm brave enough to see whether the sphere will survive without any rubber bands, I'll wait to document the first bouncy bit.