Tricolor Plasma Globe

Museum-grade 12 inch plasma globe showing what I would call a "technicolor lightning" effect with shades of red, blue and green and showing a lot of sharp details. This is an original Star Sculpture edition by Bill Parker called "The Elegance of Becoming" showing a characteristic "electric spiderplant" effect and highly active plasma tendrils at a high power setting. My apologies for the inability of my camera to properly capture all the finer details of this sculpture, and for "washing out" some of the colors. I intend to switch to a true HD camcorder as soon as my budget permits. The gas fill is a proprietary mixture designed by Bill Parker so I don't know exactly what this globe contains. It does appear to be a mixture similar to what is used in the five inch Portable Plasma Balls showing red, blue and green colors currently for sale online that were also designed by Bill Parker for the San Francisco Exploratorium retail store. Special thanks go to Lanny L. for helping me to find and acquire this sculpture.

Music: Water From a Vine Leaf by William Orbit

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Technicolor Plasma
• Elegance of Becoming
• Tricolor Plasma

[rob5i]

Hi StandingWulf,

I acquired a similar Star Sculpture but the fuse and cap was missing. I found a fuse holder and fuse on eBay but after lighting up for a second the fuse blew. Do you know what size of fuse to get? It doesn't say anywhere and this was built in 1984.

[StandingWulf]

@rob5i I believe the factory-issue Star Sculpture fuses are 250V at 0.25 A, and I would suggest using "slow-blow" fuses to prevent too much power draw through the fuse when the sculpture is first turned on. Some of my older Starsculpture power supplies have changed with time and I have used 0.5 A and as much as 1.0 ampere "slow-blow" fuses with them without any problems.

[rob5i]

@StandingWulf I picked up some fuses .5A 250v and 1A 250v and they keep blowing. It sounds like there's something loose on the inside but I've been unable to open it. Have you opened on of these?

[StandingWulf]

@rob5i Yes, but it's tricky and easy to damage the base or cause more electrical damage if you are not very careful if you remove the four baseplate screws located under the rubber feet on the base. I will send info on that via YouTube message service.

[wyo550]

This was my favorite edition. But the green faded within weeks of sale. I was in CT with the telemarketing staff

[StandingWulf]

@wyo550 The RBG globes were also my favorite. From reports of other collectors and from trying to make one like this myself it appears as if this is a tricky mixture that can loose the green color if any impurity is left in the glass or in the gas mix. The ratio of ingredients has to be exactly right and has to stay that way, so it is highly vulnerable to contaminants during the fill process. One of the most popular color schemes, but also one of the hardest to make completely color-fast.

[StandingWulf]

Thank you. I was originally planning on using something by Jean Michel Jarre for background music, but the William Orbit remix turned out to be a better match for this globe. It had a nice sensual, exotic feel to it.

[Xxero0]

Nice music.