Show me things that move, mobiles, sculpture etc. First thought is wind chimes, or wind causing movement of certain elements.

 

Here is a pendulum that my wife made. It will rock back & forth for about ten minutes.

Made this half a dozen years ago, as a prototype for a metal version.  Mounted on the roof of my smithy.  Made out of teak it has weathered the winters well and hasn't fallen apart yet. I have the patterns still for the likely sheet copper and steel version. Next one may have smith and striker.

smithgig

Restored a friends family heirloom windvane that was on his grandparents house on Wasilla Lake which sees pretty fierce winds every winter. All he had left was the Eagle and it was falling apart. Runs on bearings and swings to the slightest breeze. 

A lot of these scrap birds I make have spring necks. They sway in the breeze and when birds perch on the head. Sometimes we put a bit of meat on the beak and the butcher birds like the one in the picture come for it. Birds have good balance, and we often amuse ourselves watching them sway in the opposite direction to maintain balance. (The white streak in the photo is a Christmas light wire that got in the way).

Here are a few of my larger bells plus a planet like sculpture that rotates and has a light and a dark side.

I made these out of wood but I think a good smith (not me) could makes something like this out of copper or steel. 

 

Great topic Glenn! I love art that moves. Creative pieces everyone. Thanks for posting.

I'm not much good at this movie taking, but here's a try from my phone. The dancing girl is made from some old pliers, a bicycle sprocket, a spring and some other bits. She pirouettes on an old motor from our air conditioner which was struck by lightning. It has a very smooth action. She sits on our deck table now and when we walk past, a flick on the skirt will keep her spinning for a while.

Hope this video works:

 

 

Hah! That's pretty awesome ausfire!

Well I'm having a blast at the CBA spring conference. I entered the pendulum contest and we took first place! Much to my surprise, I was just happy to join. We were to only team with 3 people, all the other teams had 4, so we decided to keep the design simple. Though some of the stuff my teammates wanted to do were pretty difficult. Bending a 2"x⅜"x10' bar into a tight 12" spiral, the hard way, keeping the rest of it as the bar, then we split a ⅜"x12"d circle a quarter of the way through the hard way and sandwiched that on the other end of the spiral to have the 2 main weights. We had made a smaller proof of concept model to see how it would work out of 1"x⅜" bar that we made into a 6"spiral and that got added to the to top section with a couple birds we made for more weight, and to make it asymetrical.  And Flavio Parra from Chile put a hand on the pivot bar to wave at everyone just for some more whimsy. I wish I could say I did alot of it, but sadly my skill set wouldn't allow it, so I mostly held the pieces while the other 2 who knew what they were doing could do their thing, but I was shown how to make the birds so I made one to match the one used to show me, it only took me 2 tries. I also did the rivets. But just being there, watching and learning how to do those more advanced techniques taught me alot. It swung for 25 minutes before we had to stop it to carry it to the gallery, but with how much swing it still had we could have easily kept going for another 5-10. 

I'm on the right. With Larry Imel in the middle and Flavio Parra on the left.

I have a video of it in motion, but my phone won't let me put it on, will add it later

That is so very cool Aus. You've done it again!

Congratulations Sabumi! Choosing the right team is important. I'd like to see it in motion. I'm pleased to note that YOU are the only one wearing proper PPE. 

Frosty The Lucky.

Thanks Frosty, here's the video. We got done with it an hour and a half early, so we had a bunch of time to tweak it to get it to swing the way we wanted, the other teams all finished at the wire and had to see how theirs swung at the judging.

Josh

Cool motion, I like it. Time management is pretty important in a contest. I hate judges who score on how much of the allotted time you use. 

Frosty The Lucky.

We had 24 hours to make it, and I think each team used about the same amount of time in the shop area, but while everyone else worked for a few hours at the start, then went to watch other demonstrators. We stayed till about 9 that night and finished most of the pieces, then we only had final assembly and a bit of tweaking to do the next day.

These were our competitions pieces

And here's a better up close picture of ours at rest

Looks like you had some tough competition. Have any video of them in action? 

Frosty The Lucky.

It needed to swing for ten minutes for the contest, so the judges asked us to start them at the same time and then leave for 20 so they could watch and judge. When I got back this is what it was like.

The bases were supplied and the clearance was 4 inches between the legs. The one with the wind chimes hit the leg around the 2 minute mark, so it didn't go the whole 10. The other 2 went the whole time. One of the scrolls on the second one in the video spun out of alignment but it kept going longer than the blacksmithing one. And yes that one has a fire in the "forge" for a bottom weight

What a clever idea for a competition! Congratulations on your win!

Thanks Aus.

I can't find a picture to post that doesn't present copyright issues but the doorknocker on Highclere castle is pretty unique. Search door knocker on Highclere castle. It's apparently well known.

Pnut

Do not many door knocker design move?

They move with some help. This one is a life size wolf's head holding a stag leg in it's jaws. You knock by pulling down on the hoof and the upper part of the leg (shank?) hits the back of the jaws. Not typical kinetic sculpture but unique and I couldn't think of a better place to post it. I didn't want to start a new thread for something I couldn't post a picture of and I'm not sure how many other door knockers folks have made. 

If there's a better place for the post please relocate it. I probably jumped the gun on posting it. Probably should have looked a bit longer for where to put it.

On a side note I have found out that it's the location where a period drama is filmed. That's why it's so well known, I had no idea why there were so many hits when I looked it up. 

Pnut