Tic Tac Toe

“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.” CG Jung

i couldn’t decide which top rock to use so i used all three. :))

STONE BALANCE 1001 – Advanced – “Tic Tac Toe”

this style of arrangement is the most challenging (in my experience), and often the most risky.

…why?

High and very narrow thread of gravity. this is not quite like stacking balance (as i understand it), where there are often combos of smaller rocks with relatively broad connections, up to a larger top rock on a relatively smaller connection… (and usually frequent use of what i often see as “glue rocks”)

The goals of THIS style are continuous counterbalance and point to point contact using at least **three rocks, where the thread of balance runs along a longer axis of each rock. essentially in a more vertical manner.
**(why three? because humans have two arms, so three requires a little more problem solving)

Stretching the space between minimal contact points drastically increases the overall tension i feel through the whole, and along with high tension comes greater sensitivity to the rocks snapping out sideways, hence the increased danger.

i barked myself pretty good while building this one. basically the lower balance point of the middle rock is barely hanging on via friction. just enough vibration from placing or adjusting the top rock sends the middle sliding off the edge, which gives way for the top to come directly down on my bracing hand. the one time it happened took a clean patch of skin off the top of my hand; a rock’s method of telling me to be a little more careful. hardest aspect of this style is having all three or more rocks in position and making isolated adjustments to each individual balance point. I also recommend sitting. :)

i actually started building this with the assumption: “not gonna work!”, next thing i knew i was building myself a simple stone chair, then my hands made it work. clever little buggers they are. :P