My prop making story (2000~2011)

I have been making juggling props for many years.

My first hand-made prop was a water filled tennis ball. I started ball juggling in 2000. Then I thought Juggling balls were too expensive.

I ordered a copy of Japanese juggling magazine “Shall we Juggle?” on the Internet. And I learned how to make juggling ball from the magazine. This is the image.

The ball I made had a good weight. But when I dropped them, it was so noisy. So I put a mattress on the floor every time I practiced...

Next, I made juggling clubs. The reason why I challenged it was because clubs were too expensive. This is the clubs I bought (and some Japanese traditional balls called OTEDAMA made by my grand mother).

I bought some toy clubs from a Japanese famous store named Tokyu Hands. I cut surface of the clubs, and placed old news-papers around them. And I decorated the surface with tapes. I think the clubs were pretty good, haha.

Then I practiced juggling everyday. And I gradually came to feel that the props were not expensive anymore...

Population of Japanese jugglers had increased. High quality (and sometimes cheap) props were released by Japanese juggling shop “NARANJA” and “RAD FACTOR” and I got attracted by those new props. For example, Russian balls and sport beanbags. It was like a dream. I bought many balls, clubs, diabolos, and more. And I also bought from “Dubé” “Oddballs” “Home of Poi”. I guess I spent over 1 million yen (= 8000 euro).

I kept making hand made props in parallel. I have got much inspiration from products by other juggling prop makers and YouTube videos by jugglers all over the world.

About balls (most important prop!), after I tried so many balls, I thought my best ball did not exist in this world. And I wanted to make it. This is a start of “PM ball” project. It was 2011.

I started a challenge of making the best balls. For me, the ideal image was a “simple” ball. It has to be a completely spherical object to be rolled naturally.

It was very hard for me because I didn't have enough money (because I used it for buying juggling shops) and knowledge about ball-making. But it was so exciting to research on this.

I tried many materials and ways. I made so many samples and requested my friend Takuya Suzuki to try them. He is a professional juggler in Japan. Then I finished making the first model of PM ball.

Here is a demonstration with the first PM balls by Takuya.

This video made PM ball and my work known to Japanese jugglers. So I am really grateful for Takuya. He gave me an opportunity to become a professional maker and seller of juggling props. I started to sell my hand-made PM ball from 2011.

This is my early story of prop making :)


Written by : Daigo Itatsu
(PM Juggling)