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Description

I can remember seeing orreries at the Science Museum when I was very young, and I've found them fascinating ever since, but they tend to cost rather more than I can afford... As a result, when I found this kit I decided to use it as a starting point to make something rather more aesthetically pleasing: indukudesign.com/2018/02/15/or…

Given the kit I've based it round, my version was never intended to be an accurate recreation of any particular historical orrery, but I've taken elements I like from a variety of late 17th and early 18th century examples, and used them as an inspiration.

The wooden rods of the original are replaced with brass, as are several of the other smaller components, both functional and decorative. I used wooden balls in place of the skeletal 'spheres' for the Sun, Earth and Moon; the design for the Earth is based on the Vaugandy globe - I found a pattern for the gores for this globe, resized it appropriately and shaded it based on the original colour scheme. The base is made from a stack of wooden rings and a circular display plaque; I cast the baroque flourishes in modelling putty. Finally the mechanism needed a little reweighting and rebalancing to allow it to run smoothly after the various alterations and adjustments.

Description

I can remember seeing orreries at the Science Museum when I was very young, and I've found them fascinating ever since, but they tend to cost rather more than I can afford... As a result, when I found this kit I decided to use it as a starting point to make something rather more aesthetically pleasing: indukudesign.com/2018/02/15/or…

Given the kit I've based it round, my version was never intended to be an accurate recreation of any particular historical orrery, but I've taken elements I like from a variety of late 17th and early 18th century examples, and used them as an inspiration.

The wooden rods of the original are replaced with brass, as are several of the other smaller components, both functional and decorative. I used wooden balls in place of the skeletal 'spheres' for the Sun, Earth and Moon; the design for the Earth is based on the Vaugandy globe - I found a pattern for the gores for this globe, resized it appropriately and shaded it based on the original colour scheme. The base is made from a stack of wooden rings and a circular display plaque; I cast the baroque flourishes in modelling putty. Finally the mechanism needed a little reweighting and rebalancing to allow it to run smoothly after the various alterations and adjustments.