From Matthew’s website:

I have always loved anything that moves on it own. I grew up next to a creek and spent most of my early years walking up and down Kelsey Creek with my faithful dog, Hershey. I was always fascinated with how the water would never cease flowing downstream, transforming the creek as it did so, moving big and little rocks alike. I would dam up the stream with rocks and sand to see it overflow and watch the water flow in new directions. All that was needed was water and gravity.

So when my brother Larry, gave me a “Spacewarp” (Black Wolf) he found at the thrift store I was amazed with the concept. The Spacewarp is an older, plastic, manufactured Rolling Ball Sculpture toy; It had a coil of track, snap on spacers, an automatic spiral lift and several cool elements. It was easily the coolest toy I had every owned after my ball clock.

Years later, I looked online to see if I could find parts for the ol’ Spacewarp and restore it to it’s former glory. Instead, what I found was a few other examples of RBS’s made from steel. This was my “Aha!” moment where I realized I could make my own structures with metal. I started making ball tracks with soldered brass rod but the solder joints were very weak so I decided to changed over to TIG welding stainless steel for it’s durability and corrosion resistance.

Welding gave me the ability to join steel together with a strong, permanent connection. Once I started welding with stainless steel rod I never looked back. It’s a wonderful experience to picture something in my mind, then shape the metal, weld it and see it become reality.

After creating over 300 rolling ball sculpture’s I now have 15 years of experience under my belt. Years of imagining, designing and building fun and intricate moving kinetic RBS’s. It has been an exciting journey to start as one of the pioneering RBS creators when there was very, very little information, or videos, about RBS on the young internet back in 2003. From a humble start, to now having shipped my art into many countries worldwide. I have had my tracks and elements displayed in TV shows, been used in multi-million dollar builds, and have added my ball tracks skills to many on-location projects, such as Escape Rooms and Rube Goldberg machines.

I love that I get to create something like an RBS from basic raw materials that can entertain and amaze people of all ages. I feel like I am at my best when fulfilling your dream of owning a custom, unique, handmade Rolling Ball Sculpture. So, if you’re interested in having me build you your very own kinetic art sculpture, then send me an email. Let’s discuss your vision, so I can make your dream a reality.

My wife, Jacqui, and I live close to the shores of Clear Lake in N. California.

The inspiration for Gualala Gadget came when our master gadget-maker, Jim Blomgren, was exploring the complexities of 3D printing. Jim noticed that most of the things that are 3D-printed these days, while fascinating and very creative, are static objects with no movement at all, like action figures. So Jim decided to create a 3D-printed object that incorporated movement and started devising his first marble machine.

After many months of trial and error, tweaking and changing, he had his first Gualala Gadget working perfectly. Jim has found the process of gadget-designing so enjoyable, he can’t seem to stop himself from creating new gadgets. And in the process, Jim has managed to push the limits of 3D printing.

As with many artists, Alan has always been fascinated by what makes things work. “Automata are a natural fit for me. I love the challenge of animating a whimsical scene, trying to figure out what mechanically has to go on below the deck to make everything go!”

Alan’s current work reflects an interest he has with early science fiction, specifically the robot and rocket imagery. While frightening when it was originally made, today it is viewed as nostalgic and humorous. “These automata are fun reflections of life, and how our perceptions change over time.”

Joe Chirchirillo has been creating sculpture since the early 1970’s. After attending college in New York and Arizona, he moved to the New York Metro area and settled in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1979. He was part of the first wave of artists moving to this outpost across the Hudson, building the budding art scene there. In the early 1980’s he was involved with artists from lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who put on large shows in abandoned buildings and blighted urban lots. These artist-run shows were huge public events and received tremendous attention from viewers and critics alike.

In the 1990’s he began to experiment with kinetic sculpture; looking for ways to examine the similarities and contrasts between the natural and mechanical world. Pushing his ideas even further, he began creating sculpture based on the cycles in nature. For the last 10 years he has been working on his “Sculpture Systems” series. The aim of this work is to create “nature machines” that mimic natural processes.

His work has been reviewed in Art Forum, Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, Vanity Fair and on numerous occasions in the New York Times. He shows in galleries, outdoor sculpture parks and museums. He moved to North Bennington, Vermont seven years ago with his family where he continues to develop the Sculpture System series.

He has become involved in the art scene in Vermont while continuing to develop his connections with the art world in the New York Metro area

Artists Wendy Marvel and Mark Arnon Rosen create mechanical flip books. “Did you ever draw in the corners of a book to create an image that animated as you “flipped” through the pages? Or been to a penny arcade and hand cranked a machine to watch a movie thru a small opening?” Instead of a crank on the side, there’s a tiny motor that rotates the spindle and flexible cards flip by giving the illusion of moving pictures. Then they connect several boxes together and coax the flipping images to tell a little story in a scene that travels from box to box

Dug North creates contemporary automata — sculptures made primarily of wood that employ a hand-cranked mechanism to animate a scene or creature. His work centers around themes that are whimsical, historical, and fanciful. Dug particularly enjoys animating quirky wooden monsters and creating magic-themed automata that perform illusions.

He was interviewed as a subject matter expert for a history of automata included as a bonus feature on the DVD/Blu-ray release of the Martin Scorsese motion picture ‘Hugo’. In addition to founding one of the longest-running blogs on automata, he writes extensively on the subject for other outlets such as the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre Blog.

His work and writing also appear in print for MAKE, Woodcraft, and Scrollsaw & Woodworking Crafts magazine

“Building better machines today for an apocalyptic tomorrow”. Bruce Salinger.

Bruce Salinger grew up in Southern California in the 60’s and starting inventing from an early age. Some of his first creations titled ‘Music Sequencer’ and ‘Helium-Neon Laser’ comprised of house-hold items and eccentric ideas. After Bruce graduated from High Schools, he secured an apprenticeship with another noted metal sculptor (who also exhibits at The MAD Museum), Greg Quayle. Bruce greatly enjoyed this period, there was revolution in the air and much enthusiasm for metal sculpture and the arts in general. After going his own way, Bruce continued to work on his own kinetic sculptures using single motors and accessible materials. “These sculptures were my way of delving deeper into the mechanical nature of human behavior. The first reaction most viewers had to these sculptures is humor. Then, while the more introspective viewers saw the similarities, the rest would run off to emulate what they had just seen.” Bruce now continues to work on his sculptures at home in California.

Gordon Bradt founded Kinetico Studios in 1972 after his first career in industry where he was Vice President of Engineering and Product Management for Bell and Howell Company’s motion picture camera and projector consumer photo products, and then President of their Audio Visual Products Group. This experience with precision movie camera mechanisms is evident in his work. An inventor by nature, Bradt has also been awarded over 2 dozen U.S. patents in such diverse fields as auto loading tape recorders, electric vehicles, musical instruments, film cartridges, and his kinetic art mechanisms. Bradt’s first commercially successful series were his motorized kinetic Sports Figures. Also very popular were limited editions like the Water Clock, the Yes Man, and the Clock Junior.

David H Press is an independent artist living in New York. He is dedicated to fully exploring the possibilities of three dimensional shapes formed from straight lines. Symmetry makes it easier to suspend a part in midair as the forces on the part pull it in all directions equally. His recent work explores more asymmetrical forms and the incorporation of more empty space as part of the definition of the shape of the piece. David has also concentrated on the creation of shapes that appear to float in space. For inspiration David draws on the work of four people. Foremost is 19th century mathematician and model maker Theodore Olivier whose string sculptures over 150 years ago were beautiful representations of mathematical shapes. The others are artists Naum Gabo, Alexander Calder, and Kenneth Snelson. Gabo provides a constructivist vision, Calder a focus on colour, lightness and movement, and Snelson an understanding of tensegrity. Press’ work explores the intersection of light and lines when he rotates his mobiles with motors and projects animated lights on the pieces for a fast moving hypnotic effect. He is dedicated to documenting the work of artists and mathematicians who have created three dimensional string sculptures since the late 1700s.

Evil Mad Scientist is a small family-owned company based in Sunnyvale, California. First launched in November 2007, Evil Mad Scientist produces DIY and open-source hardware designs that work alongside their blog, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Today they produce and distribute a selection of components and original kits in support of art, education, and accessibility.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories strives to live up to its motto, “Making the World a Better Place, One Evil Mad Scientist at a time.” The company is run by Windell H. Oakay and Lenore M. Edman. Windell is apublished playwright, award winning cartoonist, and obscenely creative amateur chef, he has been variously employed as a quantum mechanic, photographer, and (atomic) clock maker. Some of the things Windell has ended up designing and building include an interactive dining table, a carbon-fiber electric guitar, hard-drive wind chimes, radio-controlled hovercrafts, nixie tube clocks, and magnetohydrodynamic-powered boats.

Lenore, a veteran bike commuter, used to live in Portland, Oregon, where her son Chris got to ride in her bike’s sidecar. Abandoning wet for warm, she moved to Sunnyvale, California, she has helped to popularize edible origami.. Her college studies in classical Greek prepared her well for her career working with professors, librarians, engineers and scientists