Limited Edition Acorn Flywheel Spin Top.

Our most recent experiment in spinning is here. This time as a flywheel. Acorn spin top has a tungsten core, a titanium shell and a ceramic bearing + tip.

Rev the flywheel by swiping the rubber gasket across as surface to produce spinning momentum in the tungsten core.

We made 100 pieces of this experimental variation. Each is numbered and once they are gone, they are gone. Forever.

Flywheel Acorn Spin Top

Our first flywheel experiment was made a few years ago. With this version, we tried going smaller, with as heavy a core as possible.

Watch it spin. Hear our awkward whispers.

K545.

For the past few weeks I've been working through the Mozart K545 sonatas (sonatas facile...easy). When my teacher first told me she wanted me to work on this, I have to say, I wasn't that excited. I'm pretty sure this piece is played by every early piano student. And I think because of this, it seems a bit cheesy and uninteresting. But I trust my teacher and that there's a reason why it is important to play. So I went with it.

Curious about why I had such an aversion to it, I spent some time listening to recordings of it, hoping to come around. And I did very quickly after spending some time listening to a version played by Japanese pianist and conductor Mitsuko Uchida. I'm new to this world, so it's hard sometimes to point out what Uchida does specifically that makes it beautiful, but it was enough to get me motivated. (I've listened to some other versions...and Uchida's playing of it still my fave).

There is something about K545 that is deceptively challenging. It is not that it is hard to learn, but it is very difficult to play well. And this would have been impossible for me to know just from hearing it.

I'm unsure exactly what makes it this way. But playing it makes me feel unexpectedly (and even more than usual) exposed and vulnerable. Part of this is maybe because it feels bare. There isn't much in this music to hide behind. But the catch here is, in order for it to sound not terrible, it asks (actually requires) you to be vulnerable and exposed while also calm and comfortable and relaxed. Any slight departure from this makes the whole thing break down.

To be honest, I don't love this piece of music. And even though I doubt Mozart intended it as such, I really appreciate what it asks.

Crowd fave back in stock.