Balance

 My regulars may remember that I wanted to make one of these.

I thought I'd 3D print one first as a proof of concept.

I still have to tie it off properly at the bottom, which is difficult, as both pieces of string have to be exactly the same length and the knot mustn't protrude, otherwise it will be wonky at the base. I could rebate the hole so the knot sinks in, I suppose. Catgut (guitar strings, or fishing line) would be better than string and make it sound better when played.....

Thinking it would be easy to scale this up, I made another that is twice the size, it not larger. It took up the full print bedplate and over 12 hours to print, even at 200% speed.

I painted one piece white, as a contrast, and used some yellow, polypropylene rope I had handy. The ends of the rope at the base need heating and flattening into a disc, like a nailhead. Top ones too, really.

However, I still thought transparent catgut would be better and make it look like the top piece is floating in mid air. It's fishing week at Lidl, so I got some fishing line there, but it turned out to be neon green. I also bought some strimmer plastic, but that was far too thick to be able to tie knots in it and not flexible enough. In the end I went to our local fishing shop and got some clear, 8Lb fishing line, which is almost impossible to see when tying knots into it.

Still a tad wonky, but it's bloody difficult to get the lengths correct. Ideally I need to wedge the suspension wires in (there are side holes in the design into which I can push a temporary wedge) when they're at the correct length and then glue them in position, cutting off the excess, rather than using knots.

Still a work in progress....