This is the largest commission I have built to date. 41 bells make up the first stanza of My Country ‘Tis of Thee. It was built for and installed in the City of Mount Vernon, Ohio. It sits on the riverside in the park adjacent to the Chamber of Commerce and the veterans memorial. This video was taken while we were testing it after recieving it back from the powder-coating team.
This is a short video of my musical sculpture installation, Walk of Grace. This is my most popular large-scale sculpture. There are variations of this design in parks, museums, art galleries, and private collections across the USA.
A short video of Tom playing Amazing Grace on his first Kinderbells sculpture, which was his entry in ArtPrize 2013.
Ahhhh. This is the most complicated instrument I’ve ever built. It’s comprised of a central, massive, rotating steel drum that triggers the bells above to play as it turns. It can also be played via midi triggers from my keyboard. It was built for the ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids in the summer of 2012.
I’m also a rock hound. When I have time, i dive offshore of Charlevoix, Michigan and hunt for Petoskey Stones, beautiful and unique fossils of ancient corals. I thinly slice the stones, then tune them by cutting pieces away. I’m left with this little instrument. Enjoy!
A brief demonstration of my Tile-o-Phone, made from granite floor tile, another made from scrap countertop, and an early version of my ToolBox Glockenspiel.
Our simplest and one of our most popular sculptures, made from steel and scrap granite.countertop. Tom’s daughter Elise, playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
We have built them for the Raven Hill Discovery Center , Charlevoix Public Library , Garoon Gateway to Science, , Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art, and Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museums.
For my story about Rock Music click here.
This is one of my fun junkyard or toolbox instruments. Made entirely of discarded workshop tools that should be familiar to anyone. I’m playing Ode to Joy.
A friction harp is played by creating longitudinal vibrations, rather than transverse, which are used by most other instruments.
The very first time I played the Music-Go-Round. I had just mounted the bars on the frame, and used the wrench I had tightened the bolts with, to play it. September 2014
This set of brake drums and rotors wasn’t tuned, and so the “scale” was as close as I could get after sorting through a huge pile of them at the local junkyard. This is the second set I made. and it’s at Raven Hill Discovery Center. The first set was part of the JunkYard Music Box, and is still in my collection. It’s much closer to being in tune, and is in the key of C.
An End Struck Plosive Aerophone, ESPA, or slap tubes.. This smaller set is made from scrap PVC .
We’ve found that kids just don’t even care if they know how to play music… they are all experts at play. This is an example of what some children will do when left alone with a set of bells. Parents, listen the other way!