The Silk Fountain to Dove can also be used for other things. Since I have not had doves for a handful of years now, I use it to produce an appearing pole (I'm playing around with adding a flag to an appearing pole). And other uses can be thought of --- just think outside the box. And like Bob Sanders always says: SCHEME!!!

Jimmy

Don't overlook the great misdirection supplied by a silk fountain. As long as the fountain is in motion and out front, there's not much you can't "arrange" to happen next.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

There are so many possibilities besides the infamous dove from silk fountain.

Matt

I used Laflin's over 200 times last summer and ended with a 30 ft streamer followed by a rabbit and the comments after the show were that of all the things I did that was the best it's completely unexplainable.

I disagree! Magic is mostly visual and nothing is more visual than silk and animal productions. This is for the audience and not the magician.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

You got that right, Bob. I think a lot of magicians forget who pays the bills.

Hello there!
Just my opinion concrning silk fountains.. I have seen a few version and the most practical AND visual routine is by Jay Scott Berry. The video from chameleonfabrications.com on this thread gives a good idea of the visual part (except that the JSB routine doesn't make a dove appear at the end...) but the great advantage, in my opinion, of the JSB routine is that there is no apparent load : you show your hands empty, make a silks appear from thin air and then the fountain of silks just appears from this silk in your bare hand!!!

I've seen JSB perform it live and it's really incredible. Of couse he has a perfect touch and his hands make miracles with silks, but the routine is well thought and so are the gimmicks too!! His routine is perhaps best suited for parlour magic, although it could perfectly be done on stage, but the routine by chameleonproductions.com seems more appopriated for stage magic : the silks are a bit bigger and you have a dove production... But the down part is that there is a load... In my opinion you wouldn't see it on stage, but in parlour magic... Best pick the JSB routine!

Hope that helps!

I have used the SF for a comedy dove routine many times with good response from the specs. It was hoped that I could get the JSB SF for Christmas, having seen it performed by Jay Scott Berry. But, that didn't happen. Maybe in the new year I'll have one. LOL.
Bill

Another way to produce a bunch of silks is via Laflin's Snap Silk Production.

Chubster

http://www.vigilstudios.com/vsn/

The above link has a video of Jay Scott Berry doing his silk fountain.

I saw his lecture, it is genius the way it works.

Excuse me but the snap silk production is not Duane's...It is Eric Lewis and Harold Rice's. Duane does not take credit for it but does offer a good explaination of it.

Marvin Roy also has a very good explaination on it on his dvd.

Richard

Hello!

Any link to the snap silk production? What's the difference between that and a silk fountain?

Thanks!

Go to Lock Family Magic website. It will give you an idea of the difference.

The website is http://www.lockfamilymagic.com

The “Silk Fountain” is a production of silks seeming to bubble out of each other. It is a prop that consists of a number of silks usually sewn together (but not always e.g. General Grant’s version). It is normally bulky and requires a steal (but not always e.g. Jay Scott Berry’s version).

Snap is the production of a number of silks (six or so) individually. A silk hank is produced and is “snapped” to one side (remember in gym when you used to use the towel to snap someone in the butt? Same move!) and a second silk magically appears tied to one of its corners. The second silk is untied, the first is set aside, the second silk is snapped and a third silk hank appears instantly tied to one corner. The third silk is untied and the second silk is set aside. The third silk is thin snapped and a fourth silk instantly appears tied to one corner and so forth! Snapped Silk is a nice way to produce a few silks to be used in a following routine or to cover the production of some item (dove, bottle, silk fountain).

The two are totally different effects.

The original name of the snap silk production was called Diminishing Silks as invented by Eric Lewis. I think Marvin Roy was one of the first to use the same sized silks.

Snap silks can be used to get into the silk fountain as you need some cover silks to steal the fountain before allowing it to open. That might be what caused the confusion. The two are often used in conjunction with each other.

Richard

Thank you for the precision Darkwing, Harry and Richard! I already own the JSB fountain and I really find it beautiful! I'll check the snap production then. I have a similar effect but with just one silk that "appears" in my hand with a snap. But getting a few is a nice idea!

Thanks again!

Richard is absolutely right (as usual!). The trick “Diminishing Silks” can be easily found in the Rice booklet “Capers with Colors”. It can still be found easily at the Silk King Studios site.

See it at: http://www.silkkingmagic.com/Rice's%20C......lors.htm

Eric Lewis did invent the trick, Harold Rice made an improvement (discussed in the booklet) and Marvin Roy is credited as the first to use silks all the same size (although he modestly refused to take any credit). Roy was the person who coined the term “snap silk” for the routine.

Duane Laflin has made yet another improvement to the “snap silk” (all the same size silk production) routine. He has put out an excellent and inexpensive teaching DVD and has a set of silks with his improvement built in.

The DVD can be seen at:
http://www.lockfamilymagic.com/public/Vi......prID=420

And his silk set (another good buy) can be seen at:
http://www.lockfamilymagic.com/public/Se......t=Search

Wow, thanks Harry! I'll check that out!

IMHO - problem with presentation of silk fountains -- pacing!

If you have ever watched the films of time exposed flowers opening -- the long process is condensed, but it still takes time for the blossom to open gracefully, slowly exposing the delicate colors of the petals.

To often I have seen (and sometimes myself) have done a silk fountain that is more like a flower trying to bloom in an earthquake.

This is an effect that can allow a breath of color to develop. It has a STRONG focus point for the audience, particularly if managed with one hand. Put this into 3/4 profile and picking up a load becomes a piece of cake.

The Hughes fountains are great -- and over the years I have acquired a few types -- including center loads of birds, flash (this is hell on the top few silks) and streamers. In one "Silk Merchant" routine I did in Chinese restaurants for a year -- I even openly introduced the folded packet rather than concealing it. The burst of blossoming color is the effect this way -- not the cleverness of the manipulator.

In past years silks were labeled "flash acts" because of color. The "Street in Old Peiking" was a wonderful almost instantanious surprise of unfolding streamers, flags, etc. as a wam-bam close. But, like the fountain, the prep and folding was immense............

And that was a different world.

Chmara,

Could you give a little more detail on the "Street in Old Peiking" routine? Sounds interesting. Is it published anywhere?

I wished we could see more routines like the Ade Duvall acts today.

David