Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.
Product: Toy: Construction
Bézier's Matchsticks   (+4, -4)  [vote for, against]
make matchsticks that take the form of calibrated arcs and Bézier curves

Bézier's Matchsticks facilitate the creation of smooth sided structures when glued together. (with their heads cut off) Building with matches is a noble task, but creating buildings such as Irish Round Towers or other curved sided objects has always been less than satisfactory.

The matches would be sold in calibrated boxes, so that multiple sets might be purchased to predictably enable complex forms to be built. These might include: smooth sided organic or mechanical forms - like cars, whale shapes or regular conical structures.

Of course you can always simply use them to light candles etc, especially ones that are "around the corner".
-- xenzag, Sep 13 2011

What does 10 billion matches look like? http://www.google.c...:0&biw=1153&bih=596
here's an example by artist Sol LeWitt (using the de-lux coloured variation) [xenzag, Sep 13 2011]

the man who... http://www.google.c...44&biw=1366&bih=602
[pertinax, Sep 18 2011]

Or you could just use a match-steamer to allow the wood to be bent and then a set of tiny match-clamps to hold the match in the right curve while it cools.
-- hippo, Sep 13 2011


You could, but that's more of an idea of how to do bend a matchstick as opposed to an actual product.
-- xenzag, Sep 13 2011


Isn't the whole point of matchstick modelling to make models from a single, simple element?

This idea takes matchstick modelling in the same direction that construction sets have taken over the last 40 years - with an increasing number of specialised parts and reduced requirement for imagination.

What next - pre-formed matchstick window frames, roof tiles, turrets, wheels, etc?

(-)
-- Twizz, Sep 13 2011


You're wrong to make that assumption. This idea requires even more imagination and skill to match the curves perfectly.
-- xenzag, Sep 13 2011


Yeah, bonsai bentwood.
-- mouseposture, Sep 14 2011


Has anyone considered the alternative option of simply not making things out of matchsticks?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 14 2011


I've made plenty of things out of match-heads, but I don't have them any more...
-- Alterother, Sep 16 2011


//simply not making things out of matchsticks?//

Cue horrified reaction from assembled half-bakers - see link.
-- pertinax, Sep 18 2011



random, halfbakery