For me, it started three-and-a-half decades ago in White Cloud, Kansas. White Cloud is virtually a ghost town that comes to life twice a year for the White Cloud Flea Market. There are hundreds and hundreds of dealers, spread over several miles, representing a bit of a survival outing for collectors. There are very few trees which means very little shade and the main street is on a steep incline. Midwest summers can be brutal with temps frequently climbing well into the 90s and if you think you'll beat the heat and arrive plenty early you'll find hundreds of people had the same idea. There are water fountains and restrooms in the old school/museum which displays an antiquated classroom. I saw my first orrery there, an old orbiter model with a chain-driven mechanism that moved the earth and made my heart beat faster. It was love at first sight. For the rest of the day, while looking at thousands of other collectibles nothing I saw equaled it. But it wasn't for sale.
I looked for one of these old solar system models for the next several years. Old astronomy models would occasionally come up for sale but the competition to own one was stiff and they always brought more than I could afford. I'd been an art history major in college and an assemblage artist for many years and on a whim, I found an affordable student model which I decided to disassemble and re-create. It took about six months of trial and error but eventually, I came up with a modified version that looked like an old movie prop. Everyone who saw it wanted one. A business was born. Welcome to Omaha Orrery, a magical place where an eccentric artist paints round shiny objects well into the night while a fat black cat named Wendy watches on.
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