Music Box

Here is a little music box I made in 2001, after relentless efforts, and which I offered to my mother as a present. It plays a little tune from the film Amélie.

In order to make this music box, I bought a music box mecanism and replaced the cylinder spool by a spool of my own, made of polymer clay (sort of modelling paste). I baked this spool in a cylinder made of paper, on which I indicated the positions of the pins (protruding out of the spool). These pins are pieces of wire which I inserted in the clay spool by means of a pair of pliers.

I had to make several spools before getting a satisfying result. Indeed, the spool tends to crack under the pressure of the pins. Also, the location of the pins is very critical: a slight difference can change the rhythm of the melody. Even worse: even if the pins are perfectly located, like on a music score, the fact that the strains applied on the comb are different as the spool rotates has an effect on the rotation and also changes the rhyhtm. Therefore, one has to test the mecanism and adjust the pins one by one. In the end, the rhythm is far from being perfect, unfortunately, but is quite acceptable.

The method I used has been very much inspired by An Thomas Tran's, gratefully acknowledged for his help, and I invite you to visit his website http://www.unity303.com/musicbox where the making of his music box is detailed step by step.