One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: Amazing Kinetic Sculpture of San Francisco

Most of you guys probably haven’t been born when artist Scott Weaver came up with a creative idea for his incredibly complex kinetic toothpick sculpture, “Rolling through the Bay”, 35 years ago. Weaver estimates he’s spent over 3,000 hours on the art project using toothpicks that have been sourced from around the world, and even today he continues to modify and expand his cool sculpture.

“I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on which part of this sculpture art I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from wooden sticks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany, and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding,” says the artist.

Scott Weaver’s unique artwork, made with over 100,000 toothpicks over the course of 35 years, is a depiction of San Francisco, with multiple ball runs that allow you to go on “tours” of different parts of the city.

This cool artwork will be on display in the Tinkering Studio until the end of June. Pictures from Flickr (via)

One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: Amazing Kinetic Sculpture of San Francisco