Levistick

Well, I made one, and it is a fun diversion.

Of course, it could have been better (the cord kept twisting up) but it was ok.

*wonders when HoP will have one of these for sale* - for the less skilled craftspeople who can't make them for themselves, such as myself

Point_Blank: When I see my girlfriend (who I made it for) again, I can take some photos if it would help.

Basically need a length of dowel (I used about, tape to decorate, some string/cord/fishing line etc and possibly some prestik or a few coins/washers for weighting it.

Drill a small hole through the middle of the dowel. Wrap the whole dowel in tape and put the cord through the hole. Fasten it securely. Give it a whirl. You can probably just wrap more tape around the bottom if you need a bit more weight, other prestik is nicely adjustable. There should be very little difference.

I also added some embroidery thread tassles on the ends for the look of it.

I just went and got me a flow wand Cost a fair bit for delivery but I just got my travel expenses for college and thought it would be a brilliant new toy for me to play with, cant wait!

Aston, that'd be great if you could get some photos, but I have to ask, what is this prestik of which you speak? I've never heard of it.

Is a reusable putty to stick things to other things.

From wikipedia:


Hmmm.... Did not realise it was RSA only....

Will get some pics up asap.

anyone have experience with the DIY? I have been experimenting with cheap wood dowel but I cant keep the stick vertical. The string is 1/3 from the top.

Is this a problem with technique or construction?

Get it closer to the centre?

My string is barely off-centre (+-1cm) with a bit more insulation tape at the long end to get it balanced.

Also, the string may twist up which will prevent it from being vertical anyway.

has anyone actually tried measuring the difference in weight from one end to the other, when balanced across the exact middle?

Thanks for the tip. I'll try moving the hole much closer to the center and see if that helps.

When I get hold of mine again, I keep forgetting to get it from my girlfriend, I can get some weights and measurements up.

any luck on the photos and specs?

We bought a flow wand and a glow and fire wand not soon after from salsa.

We just modified the glow and fire wands because they were very off balance and quite unusable. The glow wands would not stay vertical. We've moved the holes by 5mm now and they are both much better.

In fact I performed for the first time with the fire wand on Saturday night. I'm very glad I didn't burn the string!

Though - how has everyone else blackened the string? Marker? Because it wasn't that invisible...

Agreed, the salza string is easily visible.

I mean kevlar is pretty much your best option for this, unless you trust yourself not to get heat near the string.

I didn't have balance problems, but some times it did just seem to be unwieldy. It was my only wand so I have nothing to compare to.

New flow-wand video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsWtMDGv2ow&feature=channel_page

But I'd like to work with fire now...

/wanders off in search of kevlar

I have a very nicely balanced Dancing Cane from a magic shop. there is only 1 hole and the string's attached to a weight so it drops down the inside of the hollow tube when the cane is in the hand meaning you don't have any loose string. there is a really nice magicians glowing cane but it's $99. I've yet to find a good fire one. but I am planning to build one if I can can get around to buying some kevlar thread. I'll probably blacken mine with dye by unrolling it and leaving it in a bowl then winding it back up.

Hey, we've started using the levistick in our performances now, fire and glow. But the problem is, you may do a flawless performance ten times but then that one time you knock it against the string/yoursef and it goes wobbly. Anyone got any tips for recovery/making it look like you meant to do that?

There are a few moves that involve low hortizontal spins

But you'd need to touch it to make it spin and then correct it to make it vertical again?

how do you hold the string? should be 1 large open loop from the stick just looped over the thumb. It's probably harder with fire on the ends to recover as you cant do stick isolations with end grabs, however if its going awry move you non-holding hand to the string and get it in the L shape between your first finger and your thumb and draw the stick to the middle of your un-looped hand.

Any spin "should" eventually turn into a flat wall plane (there may be a bit of contact with the hand and the stick but keep it gentle and it won't make things worse) and as it reaches your hand it should turn into a really cool effect with the stick appearing to spin on your flat palm facing the crowd (like your stopping traffic). It can then be caught in the middle and you can continue with the floaty stuff by gently releasing the stick again remembering to allow the string so slide passed your thumb.

the other alternative is to get your other thumb through the loop and pull your hands apart horizontally, but that way is much harder and I normally just get a horitonally spinning stick between my hands rather than a vertical one, it may depend upon your type of stick / string attachment too, mine is hollow with a padded weight so the string retreats back into the shaft of the stick when close to my hands, so the excess string isn't visible.

I suggest practicing recoveries of the things that normally go wrong, try different ways to recover, the probelm with a levi stick is as you say any mistake can ruin the illusion completely. you can always lower to the floor then do a levitation back to your hand. check out videos by david mann for some move ideas.

[url=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fth11-UHkJY[/url]

omg that must have been one of the sweetest levistick performances that I've seen, Mynci



OOOOOOOOOOOOOh creativity at work