Thread: Fattening up your cane

So my cane is just super light. What are your reccomenations for giving it more weight? It is just really hard to balance it when it is so light you can't even feel it on your head!

A friend of mine suggested adding a couple flat tacks (pushpins) to the bottom.

If it is one of those very narrow bamboo canes, then it will be hard to increase the weight evenly. Putting tacks in the end can shift the center of gravity, and neither end is without drawbacks. Tacks at the crook end could catch on the sleeve of a costume or abrade your hand. Tacks at the bottom end will make it more slippery when you plant it on the floor to walk around it unless you put an extra tip over them (and then you've changed the center of gravity again).

I've seen dancers glue a lot of sequin trim to the cane to create one of those sparkle monsters, but that look only works if you are doing cabaret-style cane, and not the earthy/folkloric style. If you've got a lot of time to kill, you could even wrap a cane in beaded trim--that would definitely up the weight, but it would be a lot of work. Heavily decorated canes can be harder to twirl and snaggy to balance, though.