Thread: practice silks for fan veils , poi other 'toys'

Please don't beat me up (ha you can't reach me anyways i'm on an island :) I know I ask a lot of questions, my mom said the same thing and my reply was hey you shouldn't have taken Clomid to get pregnant with me lol

Anyways so after spending a few days playing with my own silk fan set and silk poi set i've come to some conclusions about these toys,,definitely neat..i can see how bellydance can be fused with the fans but the poi to me is still rather acrobatic and while i won't turn my head if a bellydancer is dancing with poi it still doesn't seem to 'fit' but hey i like fusion

oh i was making a point here..those bamboo staves are sharp and i don't care how gifted you are, the silk inevitably gets twisted and i can't imagine the mutilation to the silk weave each time the fan is open and closed..even if carefully all of that crunching is going to wear down the weave..damn fast. so what dawned in my pea brain is why spend a load of cash on premium silk for fan veils , instead why not have an option to purchase silk that is still nice, floaty silk but priced where I can get it cheaper ..the dyeing will cost the same but the overall pricing on the set will be cheaper. It's like grades of fuel do you want regular or high performance? I just think with the abuse the silk will take with the movement of the staves it would be cost effective to offer a nice grade of silk at a discount. Same with poi..those metal swivels can easily demolish delicate silk.

How about practice sets of fan veils and poi that are just as attractive as performance silks but using a quality of silk that is good but not nearly as expensive? Still flutters, its just light weight silk and the weave may be imperfect..

I am not sure about the issue with the staves. I have sets that I have been performing with regularly for over 3 years that don't show any damage to the silk on the staves at all. I've only seen issues with that on the very low quality fans, but other folks' experiences may vary.

Inexpensive practice fans are always good, but I would worry about whether you could price them low enough to be good business for you and still compete with the overseas ebay dealers. Are you thinking of doing just the silk or the fan as well?

they would be midline priced..I think if dancers just wanted a simple two or three tone pair then ebay is definitely the way to go..even if they arrive with unsewn ends that's easily repairable for the price..

it's the akai colors since those are a specialty and yes I'd offer the fans already attached to silk..maybe I'm just too rough on toys lol

They'd be midline price, more than the average color scheme you can get on ebay but less, far less expensive than what I've seen them sold for in other shops