MikeIconGOLD Member
Pooh-Bah
2,109 posts
Location: Philadelphia, PA - USA


Posted:
This 4th of July my friends had some sparklers and I had my poi. I decided to combine the two. I pushed some sparklers into my tennis ball heads, lit em up and spun. They looked pretty sweet. Its an easy and cheap way to add some flare to your poi. Only thing that sucks about it is that they dont last long of course. But sparklers are hardly rare.

Let's turn those old bridges we crossed into ashes.
We'll blaze a new trail,
and torch the rough patches.

-Me


ben-ja-menGOLD Member
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia


Posted:
if u have a long staff you can strap fireworks to the end and get some wicked effects to

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?


coza-Why-
126 posts
Location: uk, Newcastle / Chester


Posted:
are we talking about the long sparklers? coz i dont think it would be 2 safe, id much rather just use wire wool.

however this might interest you
Sparkler Bomb

If money is the root of all evil, then why do people sell Bibles?


flidBRONZE Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,136 posts
Location: Warwickshire, United Kingdom


Posted:
safe? what's that?

Sparklers compared to wire wool are crap, you need to add loads of them to the end of firepoi to look any good. They crumble if you bend them too much, so they add on quite a bit of extra length to poi which you may not be used to. Bellow is 2 pictures, the first of me doing sparklers and the second of woody doing wirewool. There really is no comparison:

[image]https://photos.offline.org.uk/showpic.php?picid=t1139[/image]
Non-Https Image Link

NickCMonkey Wrangler
183 posts
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada


Posted:
Sparklers are a so-so substitute for wire wool if you don't have any large open spaces around.

ben-ja-menGOLD Member
just lost .... evil init
2,474 posts
Location: Adelaide, Australia


Posted:
those wire wool look awsome, what exactly is the wire wool? where do u get it what is in it that gives that awsome effect?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?


MikeIconGOLD Member
Pooh-Bah
2,109 posts
Location: Philadelphia, PA - USA


Posted:
I know sparklers dont really compare to wire wool, but for those of us who dont have the space or poi equipment for wool, sparklers are just a nice change from the norm. I would be scared of wire wool anyway heh. I dont want metal sparks flying all over, catching my hair/clothes on fire.

Let's turn those old bridges we crossed into ashes.
We'll blaze a new trail,
and torch the rough patches.

-Me


coza-Why-
126 posts
Location: uk, Newcastle / Chester


Posted:
Might give them a shot, how do u attach them on? did you have a look at the sparkler bomb?

If money is the root of all evil, then why do people sell Bibles?


Jezaddict
642 posts
Location: UK, London


Posted:
It really should not turn out to be a debate about wire wool vs sparklers. I use both for different reasons. Sparklers do have a good peaceful noise for spinning, unlike fire which can drown out quieter music or people speaking. They also have nice thin crisp trails from the end, which are nice to look at. Plus you can do them closer to an audience unlike wire wool.

Although I agree that wire wool is far more spectacular but different situations require different tools which is why I have lots of fire kit, that I use for different occasions.

'Happiness is liking peeing on yourself. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.'

'If *I* had a hammer, there'd be no more folk singers.'


Astarmember
1,591 posts
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada.


Posted:
Is there any sort of long-burn sparklers? When I experimented with them they burnt up so fast it wasn't really worth it. It was just a rinky dink few second effect. Im not trying to turn this into a sparkler vs wire wool debate, im just thinking people who use sparklers must have found a way to do it better then me because what I saw was way to short of a burn to do anything with.

Jezaddict
642 posts
Location: UK, London


Posted:
You can get extra long sparklers. The one's I have last for approx 5mins. But best used with shorter chains as the end of the sparklers will add quite a lot of length to the poi.

'Happiness is liking peeing on yourself. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.'

'If *I* had a hammer, there'd be no more folk singers.'


Jelloambiguous
646 posts
Location: Mpls, MN, USA


Posted:
I've never experienced the wire wool first hand, is it possible to do anything with them besides a weave? I've only seen pics of the weave and I can imagine you'd have to be carefull trying anything else.

I've always pondered the sparkler idea and may someday try it once I find a nice way to attache them to my cathedral wicks.

_________________________________
Fuzzy Dice.......................................


Jezaddict
642 posts
Location: UK, London


Posted:
You can do many moves with wire wool but as mentioned before you should avoid any moves that will make the sparks travel towards your body. Also as the cages to hold the wire wool tend to be rather large it does tend to restrict your moves quite a bit and makes things like btb weaves pretty hard and butterfly moves can be a bit harder.

The reason most people do the weave is so that you can spin the cages ultra fast and send sparks many, many feet away from you and it looks far more impressive done with a lot of speed.

'Happiness is liking peeing on yourself. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.'

'If *I* had a hammer, there'd be no more folk singers.'


i8beefy2GOLD Member
addict
674 posts
Location: Ohio, USA


Posted:
Cages? I don't use cages. I and Knagi take wire and thread four steel wool pads onto it, bend it in half and twist two off, and then wrap the other two around. We then tie off the wire into loops which connect quite easily to a quick connect. Nothing flies off, and the wire wool works great, no need for cages.

You can do any move you can do with regular poi, except wraps (wire wool burns much hotter than anything else we use). Butterflys look pretty sweet IMO, but the weave is the coolest overall looking move I think. Add in some long arm moves and you can spice it up pretty good.

Always a crowd pleaser.

MikeIconGOLD Member
Pooh-Bah
2,109 posts
Location: Philadelphia, PA - USA


Posted:
I wouldnt suggest using the really big sparklers for this. I use the average 10 inch ones. Depending on the brand, some last longer than others. The key to finding a good brand is the thickness of the sparkler, and how far down the wire the stuff goes. If you find a brand of sparkler that has like 8 inches of spark on the wire and a decent thickness all the way down, theyll work well.

You could possibly get the big ones and cut them down into smaller pieces as the large ones are extremely thick and last a good long time.

The way I attached mine was I just had a set of tennis ball heads which already had a slot cut in the bottom where I inserted coins. I just stuck the sparkler in the slot down to the bottom of the sparky part and lit em up. Reguardless of brand, they dont last THAT long. The ones I used lasted a good 45 seconds - 1 min which is enough to do a small routine.

Let's turn those old bridges we crossed into ashes.
We'll blaze a new trail,
and torch the rough patches.

-Me


Astarmember
1,591 posts
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada.


Posted:
okay 5 minutes is a ton longer then what I saw, which was like 30 seconds or something. TIme to find some better sparklers.

premonutmember
9 posts
Location: Canada


Posted:
I like the wire wool Idea. Now the question is.... how do you make em???

woodymember
99 posts
Location: Northampton, UK


Posted:
It's easy :-)

Take some chicken wire and bend it around to make some cages that you can stuff some wire wool.

See here:
https://wood2.woodyland.org/pics/poi/steelwool-burners/page.shtml

Stuff them with wirewool, dunk then end in a little paraffin, let it drain a bit then light it and spin like crazy :-D

Luv and Lemons.WoodyMrs Jaypher said, 'It's saferIf you've lemons in your head;First to eat, a pound of meat,And then to go at once to bed.



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