I own a very old set of 20th century shorts. 50s 60s?
and they always get a laugh. I see people look at them hanging out of my waistband while doing other effects. great misdirection.

There are some nice gimmicked sets in a very shiny poly blend. Very flashy and eye catching.

I do have to be carefull sometimes with my 20th century silks. The light does make the silk 'visible' sometimes so I just wave them around whilst showing them. Then I make sure ones behind the other when I tie the knot. never had any problems.

James

Hi Den
I also have the 'ungimmicked' 20th Century silks; and was intrigued with your idea of using a snap-button to introduce various center silk. It sounds like a brilliant solution!

Please forgive this approach (I normally contribute in 'Little Darlings.' But I wonder if you could explain your set-up in a little more detail. I'm not quite sure why you need to have a press button.

Is there not the danger of the press-button popping apart as you pull the outside silks apart to reveal the center silk? Or have I got hold of the wrong end of the stick?

If necessary, you can email me a simple sketch on:- jbreeds@onetel.net.uk

Many thanks, and best wishes to you and yours from a simple-minded Englishman!

John Breeds

What strategy for set-up should be considered if using three different coloured silks compared to 2 blue and 1 red so the hidden silk does not require an extra attached piece.

Is the best strategy to use a multi-coloured silk with coloured corners the same colour as the other two silks?

I'd like more info on the button set-up aswell, Denis.

Thanks,

J

Johnpert
I played around with using an extra 6" silk (in addition to the other three).

I want to use all plain silks, ie no patterns etc. Suppose there are two white and one red silks. Tie a 6" white silk to the corner of the red silk. Then prepare/fold as in normal non-gimmicked version, so that they appear as two white silks.

In performance, tie together acccoringly. When pulling apart the two white silks, the red one apears in the centre.... the extra knot at one end of the red is hardly noticable.

Anyway, that's my solution. But I thought Den had come up with a more elegant variation, which used snap buttons; hence my question.

Cheers

John Breeds

After reading the posts here's my two cents. I have both the P&A and the Rice’s (Silk King) gimmicked versions, I like the pocket, and it’s just my personal thing. It's a quick set-up and reset with the pocket, and no one has ever noticed. I like the Rice’s pattern a little better than the P&A tie dye, but use both depending on my mood. I use a method of having all three tied together at the top of the routine looking the way they will at reappearance. This is done by knotting the duplicate silk around the top of the sheath, which holds the pocket silk around the "tail" of the production silk. Both P&A and Rice have corners on the production silk that match the pocket silk. Hand size should not be an issue because you are only hiding a seam on two matching colors.

On Pavel's DVD volume 2, he teaches a handling for 20th century silks that looks quite nice. His series of dvds really isn't that great, but if you are creative, you'll definitely get some ideas by watching.

Alym

The pro models of the 20th Century Silks have a shadow panel inside the pocket that stops color flashing through the other silk in bright stage lights.