Fire Kettles

Year:
2014

I had a lot of fun helping Ted at Illuminarium fire and special effects to build this propane-powered fire sculpture.

Kettles and Audience


It had four flame throwers, each one mounted in the spout of an old copper kettle. The public could control the flamethrowers with a keyboard made of copper spoons. Aran was the brains behind the Arduino control circuits.

Kettles with Audience


The first version of the control circuit was inside a lunchbox!

Kettles Fire outdoors

Ted with kettles


Here is Ted with the completed kettles outside the workshop. The white lump on the ground is a dead man’s handle – that’s how we could safely let the public control the flame throwers.

Fire kettles lit indoors