Thread: Where to buy a shamadan?

I am looking for a shamadan and I have only seen one on dahlal so far. Does anyone know if they are good quality and really that adjustable as they say?

Any other sellers you can recommend that sell shamadan?

This will be my first shamadan, what do I need to look for - weight, fit, price...?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by natalie_bax

I am looking for a shamadan and I have only seen one on dahlal so far. Does anyone know if they are good quality and really that adjustable as they say?

Any other sellers you can recommend that sell shamadan?

This will be my first shamadan, what do I need to look for - weight, fit, price...?

Thanks!

whoops, just answered your question on your other thread...

I bought my shamadam from Cairo so I don't know about imported ones but I would guess they are all the same...

Yes, they are adjustable - mine has a screw at the back that you tighten or loosen to adjust and it has foam in the bit that goes around your head which makes fit better and be more comfortable.

But the quality isn't that good and I had to do a lot of tailoring to make it safe. For example, no matter how hard I tightened the arms, they loosened up and swung around when I was dancing .w.: So I got my husband to solder them in place. And now it's fine.

Shahrzad also sells them on line. Price is $30 less than Dahlal though I didn't get into comparing shipping costs. Based on the photos, the quality is probably about the same.
The Belly Dance Store

They can be got cheaper on e-bay but I checked this out when I was looking for one and found that there seemed to be many unhappy buyers. I was fortunate enough to have a friend buy me one in Cairo and she confirmed what Sunshine says above, the "quality" shamadan probably doesn't exist unless you have it custom made. They're thrown together from piles of mass produced parts. One you get one, you have to work on it. Another way to deal with keeping the arms from loosening is to wrap teflon plumbers' tape around the screw threads. Also the lengths of the arms may not be exactly consistent, but you can switch them around so the shortest are all on the upper tier and the longest on the lower one.
Good luck shopping!
Rosette

Originally Posted by sunshine

But the quality isn't that good and I had to do a lot of tailoring to make it safe. For example, no matter how hard I tightened the arms, they loosened up and swung around when I was dancing .w.: So I got my husband to solder them in place. And now it's fine.

The Shemadans as sold by Dahlal and Scherezade are, frankly, junk. You can't keep things tight, nothing's straight, blah, blah. Sunshine's right - you have to do a LOT of re-engineering and re-working to make one work at all, and it still will probably be sub-optimal. I ended up selling mine, and making my own out of a "real" candelabrum - which was an adventure in itself.

There are other options, but hard to find in the US. There is a folding one out there that seems to have a good rep, but seems to also be perennially out of stock (Shira has one). There are some pretty good looking (from a structural standpoint as well as esthetically) ones available in Germany.

Shira knows more about other options...

This is sooo funny... I just asked Zorba about his shamadan last night..l;, ... anyone else think he should make more and sell them to us..g.: ? I call first in line!!!

be careful about the ones on ebay.
i got one from an ebay vendor [who also advertises custom made costumes from egypt]
it took forever to get here and when it did, it was rusty and missing parts.

4 months later...she sent a replacement with its own problems.
now i have a shamadan graveyard of spare parts waiting to be soldered into a working unit.

so, obviously, i would caution against these ebay "bargains".
if you know someone going to egypt, perhaps they could get you a good quality one.

zorba: if you do start a shamadan side business, i'd get one too ;)

Took me ages to find good ones and I emailed everyone I could find who had it as a specialism on their website to no help I might add. i've been dancing with shamadan for a few years now.I've just got back from Cairo and i noticed a big improvement in quality at Mahmoud Al Ghaffer and Yassers-so no doubt that will filter through the traders eventually.Best bet is to get someone who's going to Cairo to get you one
If you look on my website Rakscandi there is a lot of shamadan advice.Good luck

You can also try Lucy in Richmond, VA who owns Scheherezade Imports. She has 2 & 3 tier Shamadans of nice quality. I believe she has both brass & silver.
Scheherezade Imports

I searched for years and finally ended up getting one of the cheap-o ones - which was all I was ever able to find! but, I was able to fix it up quite nicely. first I took it all apart and scrubbed it (it was coated in grime and dust). then I went to the hardware store and bought piles of metal and very thin rubber washers. when I reassembled it, I put the rubber washers between all of the arms and under the candle cups, and metal washers where they felt like they needed to go. the foam lining the headpiece was all crumbly and disintegrating so I bought some padding and sewed strips of red velvet around it. I attached the new lining to the shamedan using RV glue (a kind of epoxy that is supposed to be good for glueing anything to anything - metal, upholstery, rubber, whatever). now everything is tight and sturdy and nothing shakes or wobbles, and I think it looks rather fantastic.

I've seen a couple of the german ones - they are soooo nice!

Thanks for all the advice everyone!
The german supplier I know that custom makes shamadans is Malu-Tanz but I wanted to see what other alternatives there are, too.
If anyone is interested in the contact, I think the web is in german only... but here it is anyway:
Traumwelt Orientalischer Tanz » Startseite

Originally Posted by Candi

If you look on my website Rakscandi there is a lot of shamadan advice.Good luck

Nice article - and more complete on the history than any I've seen. I've linked to it from the brief Shemadan blurb on my site.

Good job, and thanx for sharing!

This is in the Swap Pages and I think is still available.

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/bellydance...ered-gold.html

If not and you haven't found one, I'm selling two of mine but haven't gotten them listed yet.

Originally Posted by songofincense

This is sooo funny... I just asked Zorba about his shamadan last night..l;, ... anyone else think he should make more and sell them to us..g.: ? I call first in line!!!

I think Zorba should make shamadans to sell as well! I would definitely buy one!!

Wow! That's a big Shamadan!

Shahrzad just got new shamadans in recently and they are a big improvement on the previous ones she carried. One of my students bought one and is very happy with it.

Originally Posted by jasani

Wow! That's a big Shamadan!

It is - and nice looking too (from here anyway).

The biggest one I've ever seen is Rabab's on the DVD "The Bellydancers of Cairo" - that thing is a monster!

Originally Posted by bintbeled

Shahrzad just got new shamadans in recently and they are a big improvement on the previous ones she carried. One of my students bought one and is very happy with it.

Like this one from Shahrzad's WebSite?

This at least LOOKS like it may be better quality - and it looks a lot nicer than the "usual" ones. The price is good too. It apparently comes with a carrying case and better quality crown padding.

I' ve bought a shamadan last year from Isis exchange and it was very good. Try to contact them may be they have something in stock.
Isis Exchange Belly Dance Costumes - Belly Dance Hip Scarves - Belly Dancing Accessories - Belly Dance Costume