The Mobius Ball

This little thing has been annoying, frustrating, fascinating and haunting me for years. (Hey, those were almost in alphabetical order.)

The Mobius Ball is one of those weird little chain-mail things that just sort of came out of a frustrating moment for me. I was working in some small links, probably 18 gauge 1/4 inch or something like that (if I was near my studio right now I could probably look around tell you, but I'm not and it really doesn't matter anyways so I'll just continue on with the story), and making an Oriental 6:1 bracelet. the flat links for this particular bracelet required doubling up, at least, and tripling them up looked far better.

So I did.

But I didn't want to just triple them up because I thought that would look a bit boring, so I interlinked them instead. One brass. One copper. One nickel. I started making these little florets and setting them aside to put into that bracelet.

And I kept on making them.

And making them.

 On and on.

And on.

And it got phenomenally boring and tedious and repetitive and redundant (like this passage).

At one point I got so frustrated just sitting there making these stupid little florets that I decided to see just how many I could cram into there. Then, like all good periods following a moment of frustration, I sat back and looked at what I had just done.

(And I just realized that I don't have a photo of one on my computer, so check back later today or tomorrow and I'll replace this paragraph with a photo of one) (An original one, complete with the packaging and all) (And maybe, if you're good, I'll post the text of the card that comes with it)

It looked kind of cool, spirally goodness and all. After another ten minutes or so, I realized that I had been fidgeting with it the whole time. I managed to put it down and finish that bracelet, but afterwards that annoying little ball of metal found its way back into my hands.

This was on a Wednesday.

That weekend I went to my shop at the Bristol Renaissance Faire and showed Connie.

She sort of shrugged when she saw it and said "It's kind of neat, but can you make it bigger?"

"No", was my naive reply, "that's all the links that will fit in there."

She looked at me like I was a complete idiot, which I guess I was at that moment, and said, "Try using bigger links."

My jaw must have fallen open as I stood there dumbfounded that I hadn't thought of such an obvious answer myself.

Needless to say, it was a hit.

I gave one to a friend of mine who was blind, and a week later he was still playing with it. I recently received an e-mail from another friend who got hers at that time, nearly 20 years ago (yes, Denise, it's been that long), and she said she still plays with it. (Actually, I think I gave her two.)

I spent many weekends that season making Mobius Balls, which just seemed to me to be the obvious thing to call it. And when I wasn't making Mobius Balls, I was showing people the Mobius strip and explaining why I came up with that name. It was a very fun weekend as I showed hundreds of people the joy of drawing that line on a Mobius strip and how it goes all around to the other side, and then back again to join itself. Then cutting along the line was even more fun as people saw what happened.

The real thrill, though, was when I had them draw the line 1/3 of the way across, instead of in the middle, and then cut on that line. I had more than a few people scream in amazement.

But back to the Mobius Ball.

We realized that we were onto something there, and within a couple of days of creating it began the process of patenting it, as well as trademarking the name. (Yes, it really is trademarked.)

A short time after that, we did the packaging, and the rest is history.

A couple of short asides about the Mobius Ball:

1. It was an utter business failure. Although we sold a lot of them, it didn't come close to paying its own costs. This is probably due to my poor acumen as a businessman, and the use of distributors who weren't really hot on it. One point against me there.

2. When one of the lawyers went to get it patented, it was turned down at first. The office said that there wasn't anything original about it, as it was too close to the Swedish wedding rings. My lawyer flew in to Washington, DC, for the appeal, walked in the office and merely handed it to the guy for the meeting, instead of shaking his hand. The appeal person found himself holding it, moved it as one is wont to do, and said, quite simply, that we got the patent. One point for me, yay.

3. When I got on the bus to meet with the graphics designers about the design and text for the card, I realized that I had completely forgotten to write any text for the interior. (Another point against me.) As I had about 10 minutes before my stop, I quickly scribbled down what came to mind. It wasn't quite enough text, so I put in the warning label. Everyone in the meeting loved it so much that they didn't change a word (to my shock). Oh, but we were still just a bit shy on the word count, so one of the graphic designers added in another line on the warning label: If splashed in eyes, rinse immediately with warm water. (One point for her.)

And what, you may ask, happened to that first one? My friend Kirin has it.

* * * * *

Ok. Here are the photos that I promised up above. And I also figured why bother trying to hide my disorganization. You might as well enjoy it.

And the text? It says, in both English and French, "The mobius ball is based upon a mathematical concept expressing infinity in a finite space. Whether used as a focus for meditation or as a diversion from daily drudgeries, the mobius ball provides intellectual stimulation with a fascinating and soothing tactile sensation."

The warning label then reads:

• for external use only
• not intended for internal consumption
• if splashed in eyes, rinse immediately with warm water
• recyclable where facilities exist
• batteries not included