Tuesday 8 January 2019

Whenever I Think Of Plywood,

I always imagine flat sheets,


 that will be made into flat sided furniture, or used in say boat building, but never in round balls, but here is one,

 the ball sanded to show the grain of the plywood,

 so how is it done? woodworker Keith Williams of Oddball Gallery in Minier, Illinois creates geodesic spheres that balance maths and art,

 each sculptural form is created from 170 wood triangles that are then hand-assembled into 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons,

 next these shapes are glued together into an angular 180-sided ball that is placed onto a lathe and transformed into a completely smooth sphere,

 as Williams removes approximately 1/4″ of wood, natural rings from the plywood are brought to the surface, 

covering the final piece in a dizzying array of concentric circles, a spray of varnish and the ball is complete,


You can watch a behind-the-scenes look at how these objects are made in the video above, and you can find more peeks into the Oddball Studio on Williams’ website and Youtube, a round plywood ball, how neat is that?


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