The quest for new smaller balls continues. Making round balls is a pain in the neck. It has been the bane of the Clown Brigade's existence, that and, mimes.
When we started the Brigade many years ago we used rubber lacrosse style balls. It was annoying to find ones that were all the same weight. There was also the issue of them bouncing when you drop them. It was simply not fun for new jugglers. So we started making some cube shaped balls. These had he advantage of not rolling when they were dropped.
We made them in a 5.3 ounce size, these wee the same weight as lacrosse balls. We also had a smaller round 3 ounce ball. We had an even smaller 2 ounce cube shaped ball. We had a great deal of trouble sewing smaller balls.
For the last couple months I have been messing around with the geometry of the pattern we use. The hope was that I could increase in interior space of the balls. I have just finished the first set of this new pattern.
They are 1 3/4 ounces and round. They are a pain in the neck to turn inside out. They are also very difficult to stuff as well. On the upside they are even rounder than our previous balls. That is also the down side. They make the larger size balls look almost ovoid in shape. This could be my imagination.
