So who remembers Rhythm sticks, A.K.A. ‘devil sticks’ A.K.A. ‘juggling sticks’? Here are a couple of pairs that me and my sis made last night:

I was the master, I tell you. So as soon as one of my sisters decided she was gonna make a pair, my hands basically started twitching and the muscle memory set in, and I just needed to experience these once again. And, Let me tell you, it was like riding a bike- my righteous skillz came back as though I hadn’t taken a 16 year hiatus from this awesome sport. Oh trust me, it’s a sport. The last photo is proof of that. But don’t skip ahead 😉

These were SO easy and quick to make. All you need is two different colored rolls of hockey tape, some vinyl (or an old inner tube if you want to be authentic), and three 2 foot lengths of 1/2 inch diameter dowels. The dowels I originally used for the control sticks couldn’t handle my awesome talent wound up being too thin, as you will soon see, so I think using 1/2 inch dowels for all of the sticks is a good idea.

Firstly you are going to take a few feet of hockey tape and roll/twist it up so that the sticky side is facing out. One website I saw called the finished product ‘sticky tubes’. Such a gross term. ANYWAYS…

Now take the ‘sticky tube’ and wrap it around one of the dowels like so. I thought my new shoes would be a perfect backdrop to this early 90’s craft.

Then make another tube and wrap it around in the other direction like this:

Find a random man to pose with your baby, and snap a picture.

Next you want to wrap some tape over your intertwining sticky tubes. Heh. ‘Intertwining sticky tubes.’ What the heck is going on?

Then you have to make the tassels, which, despite popular belief, are not just for decoration, but for balance. Cut an (approximately) 14 inch long by 4 inch wide piece of vinyl or inner tube and make a 3 inch cut every 1/2 inch or so.

Wrap the vinyl around each end of the rhythm stick, and secure with some tape.

For the control sticks, simply wrap them with tape, and then make a little nub at the tip. Wrap some extra tape around the other end where you are going to be holding them.

Then invite your brother-in-law to become a background for an amazing photo. What style! I suppose it is in keeping with our early 90’s theme.

And now to test them out. They were perfect. It felt so right, but something was missing… We needed a bit more passion…

… and passionate we got. It was really intense. Note my broken stick :’O

What can I say, I’m pretty excited about my rhythm sticks, and now you can be too.

Well, I’d say this is definitely my favorite tutorial. I hope you had a good flashback to a better time, where I could wear my baggy overalls without any flack. Those were the days.