Forums > Social Chat > Contact Fire

Posted: 10th Apr 2001
Use the gloves to squeeze all excess fuel from the ball, take them off and juggle without them on. If the gloves burn while you are wearing them you get burned. Contact juggling is about keeping a fluid motion working....as long as the ball doesn't sit on your flesh and keeps rolling it should be fine, much like trailing and flame to flesh transfer, but you will want to have all excess fuel out so a flaming residue isn't left behind. Also...if your contact juggling involves arm to chest to arm revolutions....shave your arm hair off first. IMHO that is.------------------Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...[This message has been edited by Pele (edited 11 April 2001).]

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 10th Apr 2001
Yes, I'll agree with Pele. The open time for fire on gloves like that is extremely short. And the time between when gloves get warm and you can be damamaged is exceedingly slim. I would drop the gloves. As for the contact balls, yes, make sure there's not excess fuel. And make sure you're *very* well practiced with contact juggling and *very* comfortable with working with fire in close proximatey. I'd find another way to adhere the wick besides wire. Any metal on the surface of the ball will burn you instantly when the fire heats it. Diana

Posted: 10th Apr 2001
Diana is right (no surprise there ). THe metal is a bad idea. I meant to address it and forgot. I'll say again as before, my favorite method of attaching things without using metal or screws is white school glue (we use Elmers brand). Works like a charm. For something like contact balls...saturate the wicks and then let them harden. They will still ignite but won't have the wire to contend with the branding issue.I also agree to be very comfortable with cntact juggling and fire both.------------------Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

Posted: 10th Apr 2001
I think we should make a new Elmer's logo... take that little goat-guy (is he still on there?) and surround him with flames.... it could be a whole new marketing niche.....from safety scissors to flaming poi.....anyway... thank you very, very much... I think I am going to hold off a bit... particularly at Diana's advice... I am competent with contact, but close flames are still a bit overly-mesmerizing...... I just lit my poi for the first time a few nights ago... and it has been beautiful.. I think that'll keep me happy for quite a while.Thanks again.Peace.

Posted: 10th Apr 2001
Diana's wise comment about the wire made me think you might want to reconsider what you use at the core. If you have a metal ball, that'll have a lot of thermal mass, and may burn you even if the flames don't. As long as it isn't exposed, you should be able to use a pine wood core, which you can probably find at a hobby shop in a suitable size, and will be more workable as well.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 10th Apr 2001
erm - I have a friend that made his poi by *stitching* them together with fire diablo string...seems to have worked so far...Zero metal and 100% flame hmm fire contact huh? sounds rad Josh

Posted: 11th Apr 2001
I do contact juggling with my fyrefli balls that you can order through fyrefli or renegade. They are great for juggling and contact juggling, you can do them easily and safly without the gloves

Oh LordForge me in the fire of your mightLet your flames burn higher and brighterMake me pure and holy in your siteAnd cleanse me with thy consuming fire

Posted: 11th Apr 2001
I realize you've already rethought the situation, but when you do get around to it, I would also take into deep consideration the **kind** of fuel that you intend to use. For a long time I tried doing flame transfers with lamp oil and couldn't for the life of me get them to work. Then I stopped to think about it and realized that the oil has an evaporation point high enough that just the cooling temperature as it hits my skin was enough to keep the flames from transferring. Wet fuels must evaporate, or be in a vapor form in order to ignite. Oil has an evaporation point that's fairly high, whereas fuels like alcohol and coleman fuel have a much lower evaporation point. The heat from your body is enough to make them vaporize, which is what makes them so wonderful for flame transfers. So you might want to avoid usuing a fuel that will leave a flaming trail of fuel on your skin... Or then again you might. I don't know anything about surface juggling other than what I saw in the labyrinth, so you'll have to be the judge...Just thought it might be something you might want to consider... Another thought... Why does the ball have to have a solid core? I was thinking you could maybe make balls with cotton or wool yarn cores and winding the kevlar around the outside... just like the yarn balls my grandma used to make to knit with...

Posted: 11th Apr 2001
Mmmm... cool advice on the fuel!As far as balls of pure wick, I don't know how others feel, but I think the weight of the ball is essential to good contact....that cool up and down motion in the labyrinth comes, in part, from all those balls trying to get along with gravity... lighter balls tend to fritter and twitter a bit... if that makes any sense

Posted: 11th Apr 2001
Contact juggling is very similar to spinning in that gravity is at work and the heavier your tools are the more it takes effect. In the labyrinth he uses pure acrylic balls because they are heavy and easy to glide (and look cool too). If they are too light they just don't seem to make it up and over, and if they do they lack the fluidity that makes it looks so cool,imho.

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

Posted: 11th Apr 2001
Which does not change the fact that most contact jugglers will try and move around anything from your shoe to the cat and will you please stop doing that to my tomatoes you're going to bruise them...

Posted: 11th Apr 2001
Small onyx balls might work. On www.contactjuggling.org tthere has been recent discussion of using onyx, which probably isnt any heavier than metal.-PSM

One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind.-Alphonse Bertillon

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 11th Apr 2001

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try these, available at renegade jugglingthey also had acrylic contact juggling balls that are specifically designed for contact jugglingjoshGod bless