Recycling Bowling Balls

April 4, 2008 12:37 AM

Beyond the Lanes is a website devoted to using old bowling balls for art. Paul Livert is an artist who likes to add metal to old bowling balls. Giant Rosaries made of bowling balls. Bowling balls can be used to demonstrate scientific principles, as in this huge Newton’s Cradle. Nowata, Oklahoma boasts a bowling ball fence. Bowling balls also make useful cannon balls, as well as durable dog toys. (YouTube)
posted by Tube (14 comments total)

Strike!
posted by not_on_display at 4:54 AM on April 4, 2008

Indeed, Livert has a junk dealer's license which allows him to "pick" trash put out to the curb before it is hauled away by the sanitation crew...

If he's not searching through trash illegally in the dead of night, then it's not really art is it?

Outstanding post Tube.
posted by three blind mice at 5:00 AM on April 4, 2008

I made a newton's cradle out of bowling balls at Burning Man one year ... 2001 perhaps? We had so many balls we made a giant pool table too, out of astroturf and 2x4's. Never quite got the pool cue worked out though.

Great post!
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:07 AM on April 4, 2008

That Newton's cradle is pretty cool. Fun post.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:18 AM on April 4, 2008

I was walking home from work one day, and there by the side of the road was a black bowling ball attached to a 6-foot length of chain, with a pair of handcuffs attached at the other end. Figuring I'd have use for that some time, I carried it home. Next time a buddy got married, the ball and chain made an appearance. We left it in a planter somewhere near Dupont Circle--wonder who found it?
posted by MrMoonPie at 6:19 AM on April 4, 2008

I hear in New Zealand, they have a fence made entirely out of toothbrushes...
posted by bugmuncher at 7:47 AM on April 4, 2008

What a load of old balls.
posted by rhymer at 7:48 AM on April 4, 2008

From the Paul Livert link: "If it isn't fun, then I don't want to have it around."

That's gonna be my new motto in life. Very cool post, love the bowling ball art; really great eye candy.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:50 AM on April 4, 2008

Best use of a bowling ball that I've witnessed was at a Buffalo Bills tailgate party in Houston just before the Bills played the Texans a couple seasons back. Some folks were using the holes in the bowling ball as a shot glass.

Think about it.
posted by Doohickie at 8:13 AM on April 4, 2008

And here I thought the opportunity would never come up to write "why, I know an artist who's worked with bowling balls (and the neglected bowling pin!).
posted by nanojath at 9:19 AM on April 4, 2008

Neet post. Thanks.

BTW, these bowling balls, however, have not been recycled. They have been re-used. Big difference.

/pet peeve, don't mean to offend.
posted by johnj at 4:20 PM on April 4, 2008

Excellent point, and thank God you didn't say "reimagined".
posted by Tube at 6:06 PM on April 4, 2008

If I EVER say something like that, I give you ALL permission to kill me with those bowling balls, in the most horrible way possible.
posted by johnj at 6:11 PM on April 4, 2008

My friend Charlie Milgrim is another bowling ball artist.
posted by pinknoiz at 6:55 PM on April 4, 2008