So after a hard day's studying, I came home, and something struck me to dig out my old card of IT. I had this weird plan to surprise my friend tomorrow with a floating bill (and maybe start a new religion beginning with him) so I went about with my plotting.

I found the card and everything is well so far... till I started trying to tease one out. First there was the problem of it being well... IT. I couldn't see it for the life of me... Finally after some hard searching, I got hold of one end and starting teasing it out of the lot. Suddenly, the rest must have rebelled for not having being chosen as the "special" one I'll be using tomorrow and decided to get themselves into a knot.

In a fit of panic, I lost my hold on the end of the one I was teasing out. After some nimble finger acrobatics and 20 minutes later, the knot was untied (I basically cut it off) and the process was repeated.

At long last, patience was rewarded and I have in my hand the ONE ring! Or rather the one strand. I was going to stick it down somewhere, all this while staring at my hand because I wasn't sure I actually have something there. Pffft... IT wasn't named IT for nothing.

Alright. Got one end down to something permanent (my stapler), now the other end... which was flapping about the place because the fan was on. Fine. If that's the way things are going to be... Another 10 minutes later, I was soaked with sweat, but my IT was happily packed for use tomorrow, though unpacking it is probably going to be another hassle (basically I just used my stapler to pack it).

I let out a hearty, well-deserved laugh as I wiped my brow and turned on the fan again. Then I sat there and it hit me that using IT shouldn't have to be THIS hard.

*** The events narrated in the above story are all real and happened as you described ***

Am I doing something wrong? It was seriously a damn tough task to just get ONE measly IT out of the card to use. Grrr... I need some expert advice on how to make the experience more pleasant and less arduous. And just how do you prepare a cylinder gimmick with more than one prepared IT ready for use in amazement? HELP!! :(

(Ok some of you will probably recommend I buy loops, or some other kind of IT or whatever. So... Any cheap recommendations? Operative word: CHEAP... Thanks a lot everyone. Phew.)

IT is very easy to strip.

use ur skin as a background colour which enable u to see more clearly.

when u grip hold of one end, get a tack or wax and stick it to a side, den strip the remaining length u need.

i don recommand preaparing only one IT if u wanan perform, i would recommand u to take the hold packet with u, IT is pretty brittle and easy to you-knw-what.

haha thats bout it i guess. :unsure:

many would recommend
Yigal Mesika's Loops..

havent bought it myself...
but word has it that it is easy to prepare, it stays with u the entire duration before the effect without even yourself noticing it..

A shop once quoted 20 odd S.dollars.. for 5 loops..

still contemplating to get or not..

and yea, i have had my own hell with my 200 yard spindle before..
elastic IT .... darn difficult to separate..

Alternatively you can place it on a piece of blank paper. Much easier to see. At least it works for me. :)

Oh and if your hand is quite a fair bit hairy as my bro's its better to use a piece of paper. Spares you the pain in case you grab your own hair instead. :g:

A.

IT is actualy very easy to be spotted if u are striping it against the colour of ur skin .

i don suggest bring a blank paper everywhere u go.

beside, u could also "feel" the presence of IT when u are stripping it, making it more easier :lol:

Eh... I think u better use white paper... erm... bright reading light and also




Very Important: UNROLL THE CARD OF IT BEFORE STRIPPING!!!!

anyone here adds stripes to their IT?

to camouflage it even more , that is?

I tried it in the beginning when I just started using IT because I was paranoid about been caught out.

In my humble opinion, it doesn't really work/matter if you are using it for close up setting. You can achieve MUCH better cover by understanding lighting, shadows and background than this very tedious process.

However, I read that this is a necessary step for stage IT work.

hope u can share more of your experience with IT

From my experimentations with IT, here are some of my rule of thumbs.
Lighting and shadows are the most important things in keeping the gimmick hidden. I found the greatest likelihood of getting caught happens when the light source is high and behind the spec, and the most advantageous is when the light is behind yourself.

Contrary to common beliefs, I found low light environment is actually quite bad for using IT, unless it's really near darkness, but then they probably have problem seeing the object that's floating too.

Hmmm...a lot more things i wanna share but it would be kinda exposure. But some of it is really important I feel. Like for example why, in my humble opinion, we should never use l**ps with tissue or notes. (Think zombie ball).

I'll try to come to a meeting sometime and we can all share ok?

Hmm.. What i normally do is.. prepare two small tiny balls of blue tacs. (is this how you spell them?) So anyways, once you started stripping out a bit of it, roll it with the blue tac so that it is secured.. Place it aside.. Make you you unroll the rest of it off the card first thou. Then start stripping (not you, :P) then as you are getting towards the end, use the other blue tac to secure the endings.. Although i always cant see my IT before, during and after that whole process.. I still am able to get the two blue tac endings and feel my way for the IT.