The Internet Craftsmanship Museum Presents:

Ronald Remsberg displays two of his matchstick sculptures—the Eiffel Tower and a semi truck. We thank Ron for donating nine of these models to the Craftsmanship Museum for our visitors to enjoy. (Click on photo to view a larger image.)

A Former aerospace engineer finds relaxation in matchstick structures

Ronald Remsberg was trained as an aerospace engineer and worked in the industry for 10 years before going into business for himself. He started with Convair in San Diego in 1960 and later moved over to the General Dynamics division where he worked until 1970. Jobs he worked on included the F-102 fighter with Convair and later as a research engineer on projects like one called “BAMBI”, which stood for Balastic Anti-Missile Boost Intercept—a program to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles by means of missiles stationed on satellites in orbit. It was mostly conceptual work, and he rarely if ever saw any actual concrete results from his daily labor. Many projects never got off the drawing board—or even TO the drawing board for that matter. For that reason he liked to build things in his spare time. It was satisfying to see a project go from a beginning all the way to completion.

In 1970, the boredom finally got to him and he decided to quit his job as an engineer and go out on his own. He tried sales first and from 1970 to 1978 worked in the insurance industry and then sold products for Pitney-Bowes and then for a business forms company. He eventually found that, like engineering, sales was not for him either and wanted to get into a business that actually produced a product. In about 1980 he got into the printing business and started Royal Instant Printing in San Marcos, CA. Within a few years he found that the wholesale business card market was a lucrative one, and his company went from 2 or 3 employees to over 40. In 2006 he finally retired and turned the business over to his children who now run it.

An early interest in free-flight model airplanes builds skills in working with wood

From his youth Ron was interested in flying models and over the years built many free-flight gas engine powered airplanes. He liked working with the balsa, tissue, model airplane cement and the “dope” used to stiffen the paper and silk wing coverings. However, as kids learned that the volatile chemicals in model airplane glue could produce a “high” if inhaled in big doses, the glue companies eventually had to change the formula of their glue, which also reduced its effectiveness for model making. (It wasn’t called “dope” for nothing…) Ron just never liked how the new glues or paints worked, and his interest in the hobby eventually faded.

A challenging start with matchsticks—The Taj Mahal

Ron's first matchstick project wasn't a simple one. This miniature Taj Mahal measure about 24" square around the base. (Click on photo to view larger image.)

At some point he can’t quite recall, he got interested in making models from matchsticks. It gave the kind of satisfaction he had gotten from building airplanes, took up less working space and you could use simple materials and Elmer’s glue. Elmer’s is a water-based glue that works great on wood and doesn’t have the possible harmful effects of stronger, more volatile glues. He found a company in Canada that supplies matchsticks to the match industry and was able to purchase the raw sticks in quantities of 2000 per plastic bag. He was also able to locate plans for models to be built from matchsticks, and his first project was an ambitious one—the Taj Mahal. Since then he has built over one dozen such structures.

Unlike the lack of satisfaction he got from his engineering and sales jobs, building wooden models meant that at the end of each session he could see real progress in what he was working on. Most of his matchstick projects take about three months to complete working several hours each night, but since Ron is not a television watcher that was fine with him. He says that if he works more than one and a half to two hours at a time he starts making mistakes, so he doesn’t get carried away with putting in long hours on them at one time. Even with an eye injury that caused him to lose the sight in his right eye, he is able to eventually cut and glue the thousands of pieces required to build these complicated structures. Because it is done for enjoyment, time is no object, so it takes "as long as it takes."

Working with matchsticks

When the matchsticks are received, many are not very straight. Like a clarinet or sax player culling a package of reeds for the few good ones that play well, Ron will go through the thousands of sticks and reject the curved ones first. (As he buys them, the sticks have not yet been made into matches, so the flammable match heads do not need to be cut off.) Long structural members are all made up of the shorter matchsticks glued end-to-end, so they must be straight. For strength, several lengths of sticks are glued side-by-side with overlapping joints, so despite what it may look like, no single long pieces of wood are used. All are built up from these standard, short matchsticks. Many of the parts he builds have a large number of identically sized cross-pieces. He designed and built a cut-off tool that, with the help of an adjustable fixture designed by his friend Paul Elsmore, allows him to quickly cut pieces of identical length using a razor blade. We were recently able to supply him with a compact adjustable cutter designed by Ralph Cooney under the Fourmost Products name (http://www.fourmost.com/) that will allow accurate angle cuts as well as straight ones.

Evening relaxation that doesn't include time for watching television

In addition to the projects donated to the Craftsmanship Museum, Ron has built several others including a train about three feet long and a large hook and ladder fire engine. He and his wife are currently in the process of downsizing a large home and a vacation home in Big Bear Lake, CA into one smaller residence, so his tools and materials are boxed up and unavailable, but Ron looks forward to finishing the move and getting back to work on his matchstick models. With a lot less display space than they used to have, Ron has been kind enough to give away several of his models to his children and has donated nine of them tot he Craftsmanship Museum.

For those who look at his sculptures and say, “You have too much time on your hands,” he says, “I don’t watch TV.” There’s a lesson there for those of us who complain we never have enough time, yet we seem to find time to watch TV several hours a day. Ron’s collection shows what can be done when that time goes into building things. Also, unlike in his days as an aerospace engineer, he now has something impressive to show for his time.

Here are several examples of Ronald Remsberg's work:

(Click photos for larger images.)

More Matchstick Madness

Jack Hall of England built from matchsticks, but he specialized in full size musical instruments. In addition he made other items from models to dart boxes. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/52858221@N04/ for photos and videos of his work in "Matchstickology" as he referred to it. His 1936 violin and bow took 20,000 matchsticks to complete. He passed away in 1993, but his son maintains the web page honoring his work and his unique collection of matchstick art.

New Submissions Welcomed

If you have additional information on a project or builder shown on this site that your would like to contribute, please e-mail mecm@craftsmanshipmuseum.com. We also welcome new contributions. Please see our page at newsubmit.htm for a submission form and guidelines for submitting descriptive copy and photos for a new project.

This section is sponsored by (sponsorship available).

(Your company logo and a link to your web site could go here)

To learn how your company or organization can sponsor a section in the Craftsmanship Museum, please contact mecm@craftsmanshipmuseum.com.

RETURN TO MUSEUM HOME PAGE