Norwich-based The Shop of Many Things sells puzzles and accessories. They’re also on Kickstarter after creating a system to make floating dice.
You may have seen these floating artworks before; they need to be balanced on their base. When it works, it looks great. You can see more or pledge from the pitch page.
Tempted? Hundreds of geeks have succumbed to the magical lure and backed the project. The Shop asked for £15,000 to fun, and with three weeks left on the Kickstarter, there’s about £80,000 pledged.
There are six “normal” designs, but they’re locked and dependent on the Kickstarter earning as much as possible. At the time of writing, the dark Voidheart is the option, but there’s Bloodlust, Siren Song, Envy’s Cut, Seraphim and Astral Shade to come. There’s also the impressive DragonEye Ascendice Purple, Blue and Green.
The system uses electromagnets and a permanent magnet with appropriate circuitry.
Magnetic levitation technology usually uses a disc magnet, this isn’t great in a die as the magnets are seriously heavy and would completely unbalance the die.
The solution to this is to use a spherical magnet and set it in the centre of each die so it doesn’t weight the die unevenly.
Unfortunately, the magnetic levitation technology as it exists didn’t work with sphere magnets so we had to rework that tech to float a sphere.
The early bird tier has just under two days to run, and at that level, you’ll splash merely £176 for one free Ascendice (or Dragon Eye), one other and one base. If you miss the early bird that, your £176 gets you one floating dice and base.
There’s also a walnut base variant which costs £220. The same early bird deal is in place, take the plunge swiftly enough, and you’ll get a free die to float.
The Shop of Many Things estimates a March 2023 delivery.
Your considerate thoughts are welcome. Do you have something to add to this article? Please let us know in the comments below.
