Flying Objects
Preparation &
Setup
Part one: Sticky-Tac
You will need some sticky tac, available from most
stationary stores, you can use magicians wax, or even rolled up tape. You also
need some invisible thread from any magic dealer, or you can find an abundant
source of invisible thread from most brands of panty hose (sold in eggs). The
tummy section of the pantyhose is the best place to get extremely long lengths
of thread. Just cut the entire section of the panty hose into a rectangle.
Grasp any thread end and extract it as far as you want.
To start, open up
the pad of Sticky-Tac and pull off three small pieces. Roll the pieces into
three small balls. The balls should be the sizes as shown below.
Part two: Micro
Fiber
The panty hose will give you enough micro fiber for
well over l,000 performances. Take the strand of micro
fiber (actually a thread of panty hose is many strands together which we will
refer to a master strand) and wrap it around a small playing
card for storage. Unroll about 5 feet of the master strand from the card. To
create the micro fiber, you will need to separate one of the fibers from the
master strand.
Unroll S feet from the card.
Separating The Micro Fiber Fron The Strand
1. Hold
onto the end of the master strand and separate out one of the micro fibers. The
best way to do this is to pluck at the end of the strand until you cnn
grab onto one of the fibers. You may have to try several times before you are
able to get a single fiber.
Hold onto the end of the strand
Pluck out a single micro fiber.
2. Hold onto the
fiber by pinching it between your
thumb and forefinger. With the other hand, push down the
remainder of the strand. You will find that the thread easily slides down,
exposing the individual micro fiber.
3. As you push down the strand, you will find that it
will bunch up. At this point, if you continue to push down, you will break the
individual fiber. To prevent that from happening, all you have to do is move
your free hand below the "bunch" and gently coax the strand to continue
separating the fiber. You will need to straighten out the strand every few
inches.
4. Afer you expose about a loot of the fiber, it
helps if your stick one of the smaller Sticky-tac balls to the loose end of the
fiber. The best way to do this is to simply wrap the fiber around the Sticky-Tac
several times and then knead the fiber into the ball. You can then stick this
end to a wall, which frees both of your hands.
5. Continue stripping out the fiber until you have
approximately a 5 foot section, straightening out the "bunches" as you go.
Break off the fiber at this point and roll the second small piece of
Sticky-Tac onto the end of the fiber.
6. Smooth out the unused master strand back to it's
original length and rewrap it back around the card for later use. This master
strand can be used for literally thousands of performances.
7: You are now ready to perform. The versatility of this
effect is that you can attach the stick-tac to any small object and are only
limited to your imagination. The following pages will guide you to float the
ball, cards, silks, a dollar bill, cigarettes etc. The commercial origins of
this effect and methods date back to 1910 but were probably used with other
threads before synthetic micro-fibre was introduced.
Note: To our knowledge, the effect was first described in
"Thurstons Tricks you can do" 1910, (Walter B. Gibson), and in the Tarbell
books (1920). Most of the effects back then were done with a cigarette. Rising
card moves use heavier threads, but can be performed with micro thread if
careful. Other popular applications are credited to Bob Hummer (Hummer flying
card), Steve Dushek (wonder bar), John Kennedy (floating dollar bill). Methods
vary by different looping of the thread, varied attachment to objects and
tables or even people, but all are bound by "a common thread". Spinning
methods are a more modern adaptation and are suggested here without credit.