july 2026: still working on this
marble runs using wire
marble run 2026 drawings and manual
(you can also download the files from github here)
Manual for the workshop (German)
workshop manual Nederlands
Making the schablone:
Cut the PDF with a laser cutter or print them on paper and cut them with a knife and scissors. use cardboard of about 0.5 – 1 mm.
Alternatively they may be 3D printed.
straight track schablone:
curved tracks and support schablone:
Using the schablone:
copy the lines on 200- 300 gram paper, using a ballpen, which gives suitable folding lines. when tracing: skip the triangles, they are only ment for holding the schablone together. draw / cut a straight line
Marble run maker in residency
Augustusburg, june – july 2026
I have been invited as a maker in residency in Aufweiterflur in Augustusburg, close to Chemnitz in Germany. A major objective was giving workshops marble run here and also representing AWF at the Chemnitz maker fair. And also collaborating with other makers at Makers United (link to Makers United 2026 here)
I developed a marble run made of paper. Trial and error and interaction with children was part of designing. The first ideas of the marble run were very much rooted in smoothly running tracks made of wire, or referencing the German – Ertzgebirge toy tradition. For example here: spielzeugmuseum-seiffen
Very nice things, but I wanted to create something else than the than marble runs that are available on the market (not so easy though!). Why? A couple of reasons: some need specialized tools to construct them. Or require much work. Or are just expensive. I would like to connect to the German toy making, but still had to find out how.
Paper
Paper is a material that I like a lot, and it can be worked with quickly. So it felt comfortable to follow this paper road and see what could be done with that material for a good workshop, wherever it might go.
Ultimately i arrived at a very simple solution: two curved tracks, a straight track and a support that can be combined. All made of easily available, either new or recycled, paper. It runs with standard glass marbles. It requires nothing more than scissors, a pencil and some tape. Optional were bamboo or paper sticks and (ready made) 3D printed supports for the tracks that fit on the sticks. For drawing the tracks I produced schablones, cut with a laser (optionally with a scissors and a knife) and I also printed these
The shapes are included in the workshop manual (aimed at instructors) and all are available digitally here as well as on Github.
The sticks and supports turned out to work well. The support design is not perfect ( too stiff), but it is used successfully anyway. An improvement may follow later.
You can find the support 3D design (VV2-TPU) here on Github, you can download and print it, or improve it (keep me informed!) yourself.
Other marble tracks were also prepared (more about them here). These use 3D printed supports and wire ( either ABS , bamboo sticks or rattan; a natural fiber). Building them requires more time and dexterity than the paper tracks. Most of all, they are more permanent and components can be used over and over again in new marble runs. Built marble runs now reside in the AWF garden and are used frequently by children. It obviously is not necessary for them to build a new marble run from scratch. Much of the fun is playing with a marble run, not only building it.
Looking back.
And, did I connect to the tradition of toy design?
Specifically, Erzgebirge toy design?
Frankly, not really.
But I did connect to toys and toymaking, when you ask yourself:
What is a toy (for)?
If there is a specific goal, I would put this on the first place:
Make children (and also adults) explore, cooperate, try for themselves, get interested, learn not to give up.....
That, rather than making a nicely looking toy (even though that certainly helps a lot in accepting the toy), is what unites toys all over the world. Not a design-goal maybe or something to advertise on a website, but certainly a deeper understanding of what toys mean and what they can do. The good thing is: you get it because you are working with it.
I have this result now and kick it into the world. It is not perfect and it is limited in its use but it works and it broadened my understanding of marble runs.
Gluck auf!
Chemnitz Maker advent
I was invited to join the Maker Advent in Chemnitz in December 2025.
I worked on the Schwibbogen, last summer I designed these in Lossnitz, but I wanted to add candles. So I did some experimenting in Enschede to make it reliable and safe. No messing around with fire!
But we don’t work (much) in the mines anymore (well, not in the Oremountains). Nor with hammer and pick. We use robots instead. So i used these forms for my new Schwibboge.
I made various designs of Schwibbogen. Dutch, robotics, circular, simple cut out…
When we ran out of precut decoration, creativity got a new chance. Make your own Red Tower.
When also the arches ran out, they blasted off….
It is a tough job not to go with the traditional flow, especially when that can be purchased so easily and comply to how schwibbogen should look: recognizable symbols and pictures, unpainted wood. Tradition on the edge of becoming a cliché mass product? Sit down and do it yourself, become a maker!
That became even more obvious later in Lossnitz. A Led schwibbogen with the traditional theme had to be assembled, this attracted much attention. But it also demanded some basic maker skills: soldering, assembling.
Satisfaction
And this may look very traditional, but the printing is done using Tetrapack cartons for printing, and there is a laser engraving on slate. Don’t be afraid of the old symbols and tradition, but look for openings and possible connections they offer. It was nice to work in the crowded maker place, one working with textile, another with the laser.
Traditional themes are useful to reach out, and from there you can proceed and combine. And also appreciate the old tradition itself deeper.
By the way: the elderly textile-ladies were very, very capable of working with the soldering iron. So precise and with rock steady hands.
All together now: slate tradition (background), robotics, Gluck Auf, modern Led candles (with remote control), and the Xmas angel and Bergman. And lasercutting, I’d almost forget to mention that.
The miners’ parade in Lossnitz
Maker Days Eindhoven
this weekend in Eindhoven , Maker Days 2025. I prepared a new Schwibboge. For Eindhoven and Brabat in general music as the theme seemed appropriate to me.
for me, as a stage designer, a schwibboge is a small theater, and what happens inside can be perceived as a small-scale play. Once you look it this way, it is more than a Christmas decoration.
Maker in residency Plauen, Chemnitz
I was invited to join the Makers United 2024 program in Chemnitz, Germany. My contribution was printing, a workshop where children could make their own prints using stamps that were pre-made or making their own stamps.
Fellow makers made robots and wrote software for an AI application, both used at the Makers United festival 13 – 16th of June 2024 in Chemnitz, it was nice to work so closely together and react on each others work.
I used the lasercutter and the 3D printer of Sternenlabor Plauen, pretty useful machines to make stamps. At home i purchased a new 3D printer so I could also make rubber (TPU) stamps in Wowlab. I mant to make a small printing press ( lifting type, see picture) as well. With my welding and metal gear that is not too difficult. Still, it takes some time to do so. So many things still to do….