Blue Plastic Ball Failure

Well there is some tearing at the seams. This was what happened with the other plastic balls. So it is sad. The nearly lasted three weeks.

The frustrating part is that there are companies that make plastic bean bags. I am simply not able to find that material in the local fabric stores.

Well it is back to the drawing board.

Second week of the Blue Plastic bals

Today was the third time I took the blue plastic balls to juggling at CMU. They continue to hold up and there may actually be hope that this material will work. The denim and duck cloth start to become rounder when they are broken in. Also the seams on the cloth ball’s seams tend to flatten out as they are used. that is not happening with the plastic balls. 

So if this material works there will need to be some work on the pattern. Even so we are at two weeks with a bunch of different people jugging them. So this is a good sign. 

Flying Blue Plastic Balls on Sunday

Well they survived their first go round with throwing. A dozen or so folks threw them around today. The only complaint was that they were not filled enough. This was fairly obvious to me as well. It will be fixed on the next set of them if the plastic holds.

The first set of plastic balls we made did not survive the first Brigade Practice so these are already better than the last ones.

Big Blue Plastic Balls

Experimenting with Gillie Balls continues. One of the major issues we have with the gillie balls is that they are made of cloth. Hospitals would prefer that the balls had a plastic surface. All things we where being equal we would just juggle lacrosse balls. We did make the larger gillie balls the same weigh as them for this reason. We also have some places that will not let us juggle lacrosse balls because they think we will destroy the equipment. On an odd side not no one has said we cannot juggle clubs in a hospital room. So I am not following the logic. Still, when I run my own hospital I will make the rules until then I suppose that is where we are on that subject.

Anyway last year we tried making gillie balls out of the same plastic material we made the end of juggling batons out of. This failed miserably splitting on the seams after a week. With the success we have had making tartan balls with interfacing on the inside we are trying a plastic with cloth like material on the under side.

I made up a set of these and the first thing I notices is that there is too much room on the inside of the balls. Since we make them to weigh the same as lacross balls they are not filled by volume. So the first thing we have to do if these work is make a pattern specifically for them

Well I have tossed them around and I will take them to CMU to see what the experts them of them.

Be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.

Sushi and Ball Fun

This was a rather nice plate of sushi from the good people at Little Asia. This was a very yummy Monster Roll.

You may notice in the background a few of our juggling balls. We have the always stall worth Briggy Ball in black and red to the right of the picture. To the left was have a brand new set of balls in Andrew Carnegie's tartan.

Well be safe out  there and keep your stick on the ice

Sushi Tuesday

Still messing around with Sushi. This is a recent plate with a few of my favorite rolls.

2 Year Birthday for Briggy Balls

The oldest set of Briggy Balls in the Brigade is two years old. Not a bad life span for a couple of pieces of duck cloth. The Duck cloth does appear to last longer than denim and it comes in a nice array of color.

These double stitched balls have also been through the washing machine a few times.So all and all not bad for some practice balls.

Here they are on our kettle stand getting ready for an evening of fun on the South Side.

Baby Gillie Bals

I am working on some of the smaller gillies balls. There are three ounces and perfect for most children and small people. With the juggling classes this summer I am sure we are going to go through a few of them.

Ides of March March with Monkey

Samantha Ann's monkey went along with us on the Ides of March March.

 Here is Monkey with a drummer. Maybe he is a drummer mime. Well he was very loud.

 Here is Monkey with Mandy the spritual leader of the ides of March March. I think Monkey and the octopus have a date.

Here is Monkey with Ramone.

Making Balls Again

Miss Thurmon made a bothersome discovery a couple weeks ago while at a juggling practice. One of the lacrosse balls we were using was a great deal heavier than the others. This meant that the scale I have been using is off. So this week I picked up a used postal service scale. Sadly it also means that a lot of the balls that I have been making have also been off.

So for the last week I have reweighed all the round bean bags we have made in the last couple months. I am adjusting their weight and stitching them back up. I figure by Sunday I will have all the practice balls fixed. I may even be able to make a couple new sets.

Anyway after weighing all the balls they balance out at 5.3 ounces. This also puts them in the mid range for what lacrosse balls are supposed to weigh.