Blog du Wren

Giant Juggling Club

I made a thing!

The idea behind this 8+ foot juggling club has been rattling around in my head for a while now. After lots of thoughts about process, material, purpose, etc., I finally got around to just doing it. And while I see countless places I could have done a better job, I'm actually really pleased with the results.

The core of the club is a 3/8" steel rod with stacked 1.5" insulation (with every other disc being a ring to save on material and weight). To smooth the stairstep edges, I used drywall mud (after my initial attempts of smoothly carving down the high points proved less than ideal). Then there are 2-ish layers of fiberglass with epoxy resin to harden the outside and hopefully make it waterproof. Cost of materials came in at around $250 to 300-ish(?). Overall weight is maybe 20-25 lbs.

If urged to justify this seemingly silly endeavor, I guess I would say I've always been fascinated with big versions of regular things. And I've been finding a good escape in the shop making stuff. Also, in my recent trips to

Europe, I've really enjoyed the statuary in the public spaces. I thought maybe this could be installed as an art piece at the Lookout Arts Quarry.

As mentioned, I see lots of ways I could have gone about this better, resulting in a better, cheaper, lighter, and safer* club. It was, after all, my first attempt at anything like this including my first time working with fiberglass at all. My lesson learned, in short, is be more deliberate, take more time, don't get over excited for the next step*. That story checks out with my life overall.

What will I do with this behemoth? Well, , for one. I'd love to figure out a way to do a little act with it. And maybe I'll do a slightly more elaborate photo/video shoot*. But I imagine it ending up at the Dreams Come True Pavilion at the Quarry, hopefully with a fancy pedestal, so that when somebody walks by and see it, they'll think "Huh, that's kind of cool". That'd be good enough for me.

(An astute observer might notice my very specific choice of colors. These were, of course, the colors of Della's clubs, clubs we bought together after that whirlwind Chautauqua where we met and started our grand adventure together. A big part of my inspiration for this project was thinking this serves as kind of a secret dedication to her (secret in that very few people will make the club color connection).)

Monday May 29 2023

File under: juggling

Toggle Comments (3)

comment?

on Tue 30th May, 2023 06:26 pm CDT patrick m plaster said:
i like it
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on Fri 09th Jun, 2023 10:03 pm CDT rus said:
youve started a club for juggling giants. good idea!
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on Sun 29th Oct, 2023 03:39 am CDT Horge said:
Man, am I behind in my BdW-ing - sorry for being a bad friend on that...
But regardless, I really like this (and am sure Della's tickled by it too). For an act, it could be used a simple gag where you and someone else try to juggle it (but in reality, just alternating who lifts up one end - but not too much, as you wouldn't want to break the thing)
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