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How to Make Homemade Practice Poi

How to Make Homemade Practice Poi
Welcome to my little tutorial on how to make some poi.
First of all, to those who don't know what poi is:

Quoted from Homeofpoi.com
""Poi" is the Maori word for "ball" on a cord
The Poi was used, many years ago, by the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand to increase their flexibility and strength in their hands and arms as well as improving coordination.

Wahine (female) dancers perform the Maori Poi, a dance performed with balls attached to flax strings, swung rhythmically.

The Poi dance was originally used by the Maori women for keeping their hands flexible for weaving and by the men for strength and coordination required during battle. Poi are also used as a training aid for other ancient weapons like the Mere or Patu (Short club)"

Now days poi is a popular form of entertainment and just plain for fun practice good for cordination.
Glowstringing is a similar art to poi, largely developed and advocated by the rave community, before spreading throughout electronic music culture. It involves spinning glowsticks to make patterns in the air at raves or in the club scene. While often mistaken for poi, it is in fact a separate discipline, and the two styles have had some influence on each other.

Learning the fundamentals of poi make an excellent foundation for glowstringing and advanced fire poi, like in the picture below.

A simple way out would be purchasing a pair of poi off the web. It isn't a bad idea, but as for me, save the $20 or so dollars and get crafty. I personally find I like working with my own crafted items better myself anyways.

But enough of my rambling, lets get started on some basic homemade pratice poi!
 
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Step 1"The Ingredients"

\"The Ingredients\"
First of all, sorry for the bad pictures, I really need a new camera!
Onto the supplies.

1. A pretty good sized scrap of fabric
2. Some yarn or string
3. A couple of old(or new, your call) shoe-laces
4. Two plastic baggies
5. Some rice or sand
6. Scissors and a ruler

If all goes well and you don't get rice everywhere (like me) this should only take about 10 minutes.
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56 comments
1-40 of 56next »
Mar 21, 2012. 10:38 AMkharris11 says:
Nice Post, im actually looking for some content contributors, to posts tutorials and other articles on my website, i cover subjects such as poi, fire spinning, twirling , circus skills, flow lights and loads of other stuff that makes you jump in the night.
for any avid contributors i will be sharing the advertising income depending on what they have submitted, if any of you guys fancy it hit me up on my site, if your not but you still like poi and fire spinning etc head over and check it out an join the forums :) much love www.aboveandbelow.org
Nov 11, 2011. 9:19 AMhippiedoll80 says:
Ijust made my first set of practice poi balls! Thanks for your inspiration!
Jul 11, 2011. 11:21 PMCosmicBrambleclaw says:
Darn exercise thats fun? Whats the world coming to? XD :3 congrats now I'm craving some poi and Maori carvings X3 although I always did want to use fire >:3 XD thanks
Nov 17, 2008. 2:35 PMPaganMoon says:
balloons would make a good alternative to the baggies
Dec 25, 2008. 8:55 PMdeaf258 says:
How about condoms?
Mar 7, 2009. 7:30 PMPaganMoon says:
could make for an interesting shaped poi
May 17, 2011. 1:46 PMdragonsniper says:
lol
May 13, 2007. 8:40 PMAnarchistKid says:
What did you use to get the colored flames? i know a few things but I'd like to know what you uses
Oct 11, 2009. 1:43 PMnzbellydancer says:
home of poi now sell tribal neon coloured fire that changes the flame colour rather cool
Jun 8, 2007. 6:23 PMRjeff says:
Might want to hold off on that and learn the glowsticking first. Don't jump straight into fire, its dangerous.
Sep 14, 2008. 8:47 AMravebot says:
fire dangerous? no fire is your friend smoky the bear told me
Jul 11, 2011. 11:19 PMCosmicBrambleclaw says:
Lol Dustfinger told me it was my friend (Dustfinger from Inkheart)
Jun 20, 2007. 2:55 PMAnarchistKid says:
lol, fire dangerous?? never
Sep 2, 2009. 3:54 AMwiillii says:
why don't you make this stuff from a lamp led or something like that. 1ts gonna be cool and look like real:D
Jun 9, 2009. 11:55 PMAznDonut says:
My poi is just a long pair of soccer socks with water bottles in them
Sep 14, 2008. 8:37 AMHDM528 says:
how can you make it glow so brite???????
May 7, 2009. 12:54 PMJ_SCAP says:
in the pictures there using glow/fire poi these are jsut regular fabric poi
Jul 30, 2006. 5:31 AMpluish says:
this would make a great weapon, a poi, i mean, if you set it on fire and swing it to your enemy, or wrap it around him, it wil maybe set his clothes on fire! xD
Nov 24, 2008. 1:49 PMEimii...x says:
But The Thing Is, Your Not Supposed To Hit People With The Poi. Its Considered Disrespctful
Jun 20, 2007. 2:56 PMAnarchistKid says:
but if your enemy was on fire, what if he just hugged you?
Sep 14, 2008. 10:53 AMadjk94 says:
shouldnt the plastic melt while doing the poi i just dont see how u can get it to work without the plastic melting or the fabric burning off
Nov 18, 2008. 3:57 PMmohawk93 says:
not this type this is "practice" poi not "fire" poi. that means no fire.
Nov 13, 2007. 3:45 PMkittensox says:
Good one. My first practice poi were small chains and tennis balls. I had the injuries on my skull to prove my skill level. I finally made something like yours only they are bean bags. I think having the sand or whatever to provide weight is really good!! Another way of practicing CAREFULLY without actually moving onto fire is to use water filled plastic cups with no lid or those squishy spongey pool toys that kids throw at each other. The water spins out and looks really cool and it also shows you what happens if you don't tap out your wicks.
Jun 20, 2008. 12:23 PMbustedit says:
yea, or have u seen those rubbery stretchy transluscent toys that look like a stress ball and a sea urchin's love child? usually they're in walgreens or wherever cheap, and they usually have a loop or leash that is longer than the other protuberenceseses, i'm sure u could swing 2 of those around and not hurt yourself too much.
Jun 18, 2008. 12:31 PMRolla says:
did you use a camera setting for that picture?
Jun 18, 2008. 12:26 PMRolla says:
what camera setting is that?
Jul 7, 2007. 10:53 AMglassspider2142 says:
i live in newzealand and iv never seen a man use them or even heard of one , traditionly they were not set on fire that is a more recent development. iv put bolts and washers with citronela wicks wraped around bolts on the end of my nunchuks and use two at once, cool party trick and iv never burnt myself, but i do recomend you get good first or shave your head!
Jul 7, 2007. 10:56 AMglassspider2142 says:
ps poi is most defnatly a girl thing, in newzealand a male would get laughed at!
Nov 7, 2007. 1:05 PMradiobath says:
Where I live (Boston, MA, USA), there are WAAAY more men doing poi then women. I only know of one other girl besides myself that can do poi. Most girls I've seen that attempted it have given up after getting hit in the face or back with a tennis ball.
May 6, 2008. 2:06 AMEasel says:
Hmmm... i live in New Zealand and do firestaffing and fire poi and to be honest i also believe there are far more females doing it.....however..... the females kinna do it while being social with each other and such while the guys go crazy learning new stuff and using fire and are generally way more into it I guess girls do it a "sterotyped girly" way and guys do it the "stereotyped guy" way lol
Jul 6, 2007. 10:26 PMmega destroyer says:
hey can you use flour instead of sand or rice?
Apr 4, 2008. 6:00 PMGrey_Wolfe says:
Also, if you decide to use flour, avoid doing it near fires (campfires, barbeques, etc.), if it bursts, the cloud of flour can flash burn. While it would look cool, it is not something you'd want to be standing in the middle of... ...unless you're trying out for the next run of Jackass. lol :-P
Feb 19, 2008. 7:47 AMzamirii says:
anybody interested in learning to make a set of fire poi for about $10 u.s. ? the heads are good for a couple burns but easy and cheap to replace. if so email me and i'll work on putting together an instructable for it. down here in south florida, poi and bellydancers go together like PB&J ;)
Jul 20, 2006. 3:04 AMtwoleftfeet says:
It's too bad that "poi" means something totally different (http://www.poico.com/) in Hawaii.

Nothing to do with fire. Poi - the food - is definitely an acquire taste.

Hope Google sorts this out.
Oct 22, 2006. 12:09 AMMercat says:
Poi--this type of dancing--might have come from the tuber as well. Hawaiians did similar dances, as they would tie a pouch of poi on astring and dance with it, rhythmically hitting it on their forearms and legs, etc., to mash it so they could more easily cook it.

Just FYI! =n.n=
Nov 7, 2007. 1:08 PMradiobath says:
Glowstick/LED poi is done like that. As you're spinning, you do a "wrap", where you hit the middle of the string or chain on your arm (or leg, ankle, neck, shoulder, etc), making it wrap around and smacking it against your skin and bounce back. If pictures are taken during this move, it comes out like a spiral. It looks really amazing when done in front of you as well.
Jun 26, 2007. 5:03 PMBran says:
Not only would I like to know how to make the fire poi, I'd also like to know what shutter speed you used for those photos, that's is awesome!
May 13, 2007. 8:41 PMAnarchistKid says:
or....wait, they are probably lights huh?
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Author:Hydra
Um. I draw stuff, go to conventions and just like to have funn and be creative.