“Boule de Canton” Captive Wooden Spheres
Known as Captive Wooden Balls / Captive Spheres or in French "Boule de Canton" (Cantonese Balls) - these are made from a single piece of wood and each ball is made up of either 5 or 7 individual spheres.
It takes a lot of precision, patience and skill to make these. Each ball is precisely 65mm in diameter to start with.
There are not a lot of people in the world who make these as it is a very specialised skill set that requires specialised tools. Each piece is a true collector's piece and an investment in something truly unique and rare.
At the moment these are the pieces that I have available for sale:
Piece 1:
This piece won the first prize in the category for 'Small Pieces' at the 150th Royal Easter Art show in Auckland. See the news item here.
Diameter: 65mm
Wood: Maple
Finish: None - Raw wood
Diameter: 65mm
Wood: rare French Box wood
Finish: None - Raw wood
Price: NZ$400.00 incl GST
THE JOURNEY OF WOOD TURNING A CAPTIVE WOODEN SPHERE
Each ball starts life as a sphere that is perfectly round and exactly 65mm in diameter. There is quite a bit of math involved in creating the different openings.
I was very fortunate to be taught this skill by a true master of his art, Paul Texier. Paul has spent 25 odd years perfecting the art of turning wooden balls, captive spheres and other geometric shapes.
Then it is a lot of patience, some really, really careful turning with specially manufactured tools and a calm demeanor to create these incredible wood turned art pieces.
I made the tools for creating these myself with some help from my friend Rolly Munro in his metal shop where he also makes his Munro Hollowing tools.
