I have been thinking about doing cups and balls with thimbles and some peas from the 3 shells. Has any one tried doing this? I thought it would be something funny after using the normal sized set up. Please let me know you opinion and thoughts on this..Thanks

Sounds like what used to be called (I guess it still is) "Thimble Rigging"

Whit Hayden sells some thimble and pea sets just for this. He may have some routine material as well.

http://www.schoolforscoundrels.com

I have some sets of various thimble-size cups and balls. Olde they are...

Where's Bill Palmer when you need him?
I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in the museum.

Eric Falconer
Houston TX

I do have some thimble sets in the museum under mini cups. You can get some really neat brass thimbles at Wal-Mart or some of the sewing goods stores. They are called "quilting thimbles" and they have recessed tops. The best ball for use with them is a rubber pea. If you want to do C&B stuff with them, go to a place that sells air rifles and get the felt pellets you clean an air rifle with. You want .177 caliber pellets. They are cylindrical.

There's a routine by a a fellow named (I think) Lederman in one of the Tarbell volumes.

Dave Lederman, he was one of the early NY guys, and a great guy.

I recall that Daniel Cros performed a routine about twenty-some-odd years ago in the Desert Inn in Las Vegas where he vanished and produced thimbles.

Then he performed a "3 Shell Game" using the thimbles and a rubber pea.

Pottery collectors thimbles, sometimes a little bigger than normal, may be an effective alterative and allow some normal cup type moves to be made. Another idea would be to chop a small thimble. Final loads could be marbles?