Once I realized the added ‘pop’ brought by the addition of metal during my creation of Pulsar, my desire to expand upon my discovery led me to what you see in Elliptical Nova. For example, I used metal instead of wood spokes to create patterns. Although it is a time-consuming process, I discovered that polishing the aluminum spokes and finishing with a translucent powder coating added a shimmer effect to the spinning ellipses that appear to expand and contract.
With a desire to expand on the sculpture's shimmer, I decided to inlay metal accents throughout the sculpture.
Although the metal color shown in the photographs and video is a bronze tone, I would be happy to use your choice of metal color for your Elliptical Nova.
Elliptical Nova is propelled by a stainless steel constant force spring that is fully wound by placing an index finger next to one of the spokes of the lower right drive wheel and turning counterclockwise for about 22 turns. Once the drive wheel is released, the sculpture will receive its first 'push' from the spring which lasts less than 2 seconds. The spring will not be needed again until either pattern wheel slows enough to rotate backwards. The pattern wheels spin in opposite directions and are completely independent from each other. When either pattern wheel rotates backwards, a mechanism is tripped that allows the spring to impart another 'push' to the pattern wheel. This cycle continues for up to 12 hours.