A “stick-to-it” attitude is an important part of Craig’s work.

At age 12, Alan Scott Craig saw an exhibit of boomerangs at San Francisco’s Exploratorium—a hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception. “They appeared magical,” he recalls. “They seemed to defy the laws of physics.” Rushing home, he got his parents to buy him a boomerang, which he promptly broke.

Craig read the instructions, figured out his mistakes, and began making his own boomerangs. His first seven or eight attempts crashed. But soon he was crafting boomerangs that returned home. According to Craig, this “stick-to-it” attitude is an important part of the work he does today.

Alan Scott Craig throws his artwork around all day, but it just keeps coming back. That’s because Craig is a boomerang artist!

Art That Flies

Craig makes boomerangs, but not everyday, average boomerangs. He carves odd-shaped boomerangs, then groups them together to form a picture, such as a running cheetah, a hunting lion, or a swimming fish. Each piece of each animal is a fully functioning flying machine. “It’s art that flies,” Craig says.

Craig believes he is the only person in the world who makes artwork out of hand-crafted boomerangs. “I think of it as pioneering a new art medium,” he says. “It’s fun.”

Crafting “Booms”

The boomerang cheetahs, deer, lions, and fish begin life on Craig’s sketchpad. He then carves their shapes from thin aircraft-grade Finland birch—a hard, light, and flexible wood. He uses a jigsaw and a file to cut the wood and shape it into working boomerangs. Craig must always consider the balance between the beauty of each boomerang and how well it flies.

Craig’s boomerang creations are unique, and he has customers all over the world. Some of his “booms” are even part of the collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “It’s quite an honor to have my work included in the Smithsonian. I was a foot taller for at least a week,” he jokes.

Boomerang Rules

Craig has five rules for each boomerang he makes:

1. It must be as safe as possible.

2. It must be as strong as possible.

3. It must be as easy to throw as possible.

4. It must be the correct size and shape for the art scene.

5. It must look good.

It’s a trick to balance these five rules, Craig says. Many of his boomerangs don’t fly correctly on their first test flight. “When I have a new design, I’m not one hundred percent sure it will fly. A lot of them won’t fly at first.”

To make a boomerang work properly, Craig must often file it down between test flights. “There’s a lot of sawdust in the local fields,” he says.

But Craig wouldn’t have it any other way. “I’m the best at what I do because I’m also the worst at what I do,” he says. “Failure isn’t failure. It’s information you need to succeed.”