/Arvid Andersson
April 13, 1999.

Making props for juggling.

Juggling props cost a lot of money, especially if you need to order them through mail like me. But many things can be made at home, very cheap and very personal!

Read through the page, or use these links:

Beanbags.

Beanbags are small, round bags filled with different stuff. They are good for juggling since they are easy to throw and catch, and they don't bounce or roll away when you drop them.

By making your own beanbags you can both save some money, and decide yourself exactly how big, heavy and hard you want them. It is actually pretty easy to make round beanbags, but don't expect your first few ones to be perfect.

The first time I tried I did not have any instructions at all, but I thought that it can't be too hard to do. The first problem was creating a pattern. I decided to make a four panel beanbag, like most of the ones you buy, and set out to make the pattern. I created an impressive mathematical formula to give me the shape of the pattern, then I copied it to a piece of cardboard and cut out the pieces I needed. (My formula was, of course, completely wrong, but the beanbags are still the best ones I ever have had.)

My next problem was trying to sew those pieces together... It took a while to figure out how to do it, and my first ones weren't round at all. In fact, you could hardly call them bags. The rest was easy, however. I turned the beanbag inside out and filled it with rice (but birdseed is supposed to be better), and closed it.

Fortunately, you will not have to make all the mistakes I made. Follow these links, and you will get all the information you need!

• Making beanbags for juggling is a complete guide with instructions, pictures, and patterns of different sizes. Very good.
• Some tips from other jugglers at the rec.juggling newsgroup. You can get some good advice here.
• If you juggle a lot, check out Paul's juggling page for some really durable "beanbags."

If you're in a hurry, or don't want to sew, you can make some simple yet fully functional beanbags by filling balloons with rice, sand, birdseed, pop corn or whatever. Wrap another balloon over the first one, and perhaps one more if you want to feel safe. It may be a good idea to cut the neck of the balloons first. Here are the instructions!

If you want a ball rather than a beanbag, check out exerballs at the bottom of this page. If you use water or rice as filling material, you'll get a normally weighted ball.

Clubs.

Making clubs is harder than making beanbags, and they won't be close to the quality of a real juggling club. However, juggling clubs are also much more expensive than beanbags, and maybe you want to try it out before you decide to buy some.

The basic idea of a club is simply a stick with a comfortable handle and a weight at the top. Here's a few ideas for each of these parts:

Please excuse my artistic skills, but something like this.

• The stick. This could be anything about 50 cm (20 inches) long, fairly thin, and pretty strong.
• The handle. If your handle is hard, buy some bicycle handlebar tape and tape around the stick. This protects you from bruising your hands too much.
• The weight. If you place the weight one quarter of the length from the top, it should be about twice as heavy as the stick and handle for the club to behave properly in the air. This is very approximately, I recommend that you try a couple of different weights and balances and see what feels right to you.

There are a lot of other people out there making their own clubs. Here are two letters I got, with better clubs that mine:

'I too am on a budget, so I've made all of my own props... so far. A better juggling club is shown in the back of "Juggling for the complete Klutz!" It's a great book. I use an 18" long 1" dowel, a 1 liter plastic coke bottle, and a screw with a washer. They feel and look great. And you can tape'em up as fancy as you want!'
-Dave Reckzin

'Here is another way to make your own clubs: take broomsticks, newspaper, and papier-mâché (water, flour and paste.) Begin wrapping the top end of the stick in a circular pattern with strips of newspaper. Then begin to create the angled club effect that comes with an actual set of clubs. By picturing the actual club design you can make your clubs to fit this. The weight may not always be exact but the look is great. I suggest wrapping tape (black or colored electrical is the best) then painting them. I created this method when I was ten years old so anyone should be able to do it. They also hold up very well since I still have them eight years later. They are great to learn with and very affordable to make. And when you can buy real clubs you'll be a pro.'
-Corrie Scully (You can publish this with my permission only if you add my name and copyright.)

Ok, ok! (copyright cbscully 1990 all rights reserved)

Here is another page about making juggling clubs.

If you want something even simpler, the guys at infinite illusions have a page about how to make juggling clubs from newspapers! Or look at the more complicated version by Eric Kollenberg.

Even simpler again is juggling plungers. I've never tried it, but I've heard it from a lot of jugglers.

Cigar boxes.

Cigar boxes are just boxes. What can be simpler? Here is a link to one of the JIS pages where Steven Ragatz explains how to make cigar boxes.

Exerballs.

Exerballs are heavy juggling balls, to give you some upper body exercise while you are juggling. Stronger 'juggling muscles' will help you to throw higher and to juggle longer before you need a break.

Exerballs are easy to make, the most popular model is a tennis ball filled up with something heavy. I have heard several suggestions for filling material, and what to use depends on how heavy you want the ball to be (they are usually 0.5 - 2.5 pounds = 250 - 1200 grams.)

About injuries: if you juggle heavy balls, you could damage your wrists. A better option could be attaching weights to your forearms. Many sport stores sell these weighted 'bracelets.' I guess you could make some yourself too quite easily.

I haven't tried making exerballs yet, but I will, and then I will write here how heavy the balls get using the different fillings. If you make some, please email and tell me how you made them, how heavy they got, and any problems you ran in to making them.

Suggestions for filling material:

• water
• rice (or popcorn, birdseed, macaroni... look in the kitchen)
• sand
• lead (fishing sinkers or tire weigths for example)

Water is the lightest one, sometimes water filled tennis balls are used for normal juggling (that is, not intended for workout). Filling the ball is more difficult than if you'd had sand or lead, if I would have tried I would have cut it and held it under water, pressing the cut open. Then lifted the tennis ball up, dried it off and taped it excessively. Luckily, there are smarter people than me. I read on the rec.juggling once about exerballs and someone suggested using a syringe to fill the ball.

If you want to use sand or lead (or a mix of those) or rice you have to cut the ball open. Cut an X, pry it open, and fill the ball completely. Then let the cut close, and if you don't want any cover on the ball, you'd have to glue it shut. After a while, the filling can be ground up, and start to rattle. In that case you can open the ball again and fill it some more.

If you want a heavy ball, then you need lead to fill it with. But sinkers and shots are expensive. A cheaper alternative is lead weigths used to balance car tires. Those are usually thrown away after use, so ask at your local garage. These weights are pretty big though, to get them into a tennis ball you'd have to break them into smaller pieces somehow.

A cover for the ball can make it look nicer, or feel nicer, and make it stronger. The most effective way is to use duct tape. Another way is to take a couple of balloons, cut the neck of them, and wrap them around the ball. Two or three balloons per ball should be enough.

Want more? All the articles from rec.juggling about exerballs are collected on the JIS.

Rola-Bola.

A Rola-Bola is a board resting on a piece of pipe, and you are supposed to be standing on it, juggling. Or doing something else of course, but that is up to you. Here's how you build one, by Mike Bonnici.

Parts / Materials:

• Bola and Floor Board^* -two pieces of ply-wood about 3-feet by 1-foot and 3/4 of an inch thick.
• Bumbers -two pieces of wood 1 inch by 1 inch by a foot.
• Rola -a piece of pvc pipe 1 foot long and 6 inches in diameter.
• Griptape -optional but advisable: some grip tape from a skate board shop (one boards worth.)

* The floor board is optional but if you want to perform on grass or a rough surface it is necessary.

1 - To make it attach the bumbers to the bottom of the bola at the sides.
2 - Cut the grip tape in half and put each half at one side of the top of the board.
3 - Give it a go, I advise beginners to put a chair in front of the Rola Bola and hold on to it until a balance is learned.

Another page about rola-bola design can be found on the JIS.

Other stuff.

Other stuff is the stuff I don't have enough of to give it a section of it's own. Here is just a couple of links to juggling or circus related making props pages.

Stilts. If you are a short guy and want to get taller, or if you are a tall guy and wish to be even taller, then you need to learn stiltwalking! I have never tried, but the subject was discussed at rec.juggling recently, so I 'll just pass on the links people there recommended:

Rob's Build ya own stilts page.

The JIS pages about stiltwalking and building stilts.

An ultimate wheel (UW) is a unicycle without the seat. Basically a wheel with a couple of pedals...

The Step by Step guide to making your own UW.

/Arvid Andersson