Frost Rock Balancing

Frost Rock Balancing, originally uploaded by e s c h e r.

I hope that this short film will give you an idea for how precarious some of these balances are and also an overly-prolonged view of my rear end.

It was a beautiful cold and clear, frosty morning and the slabs of stone were glistening white with hoar frost. What I was attempting to do was build a balance before the sun hit it and then photograph it as the sun first illuminated it before the frost melted. So I had a little pressure to get them upright before the sun hit them but also not too early so they had a chance to fall down before it did.

The first balance I tried consisted of three layers of slabs balanced on rounded pebbles all of which was to sit on top of a single rounded pebble sitting on the slab box. You can see what I was trying to do in the first frames. You will also see that I drop the top layer onto the box, make one of the legs swing round and generally make it quite unstable. I try again only to knock the whole thing over. The sun was gradually creeping up so I had to change tack.

I changed the design to this and got it standing just in time for the sunlight to hit it.

Although I have footage of my slipping over numerous times on the frosted slabs I am not going to show you it!