A set of three juggling balls, spun from cotton rope offcuts and finished by hand. One orange, one purple, one green. Small enough to nest into a closed hand, weighty enough to throw cleanly.
The construction follows the same logic as Gem's leads and doorstops: cotton fibre, hand-spun under controlled tension, then shaped for a specific job. For juggling balls, the job is balance. Each ball is built to a particular firmness, solid enough to land cleanly in a catch, soft enough that a missed catch is forgiving.
Hand-stitched closed. The stitching reads as detail and does the structural work; it is what holds the ball under the constant low-grade shock of being thrown and caught.
A useable practice set; a workable display object. Either reading is the right one.
Gem Bowes · Tightrope KnotsA set of three juggling balls, spun from cotton rope offcuts and finished by hand. One orange, one purple, one green. Small enough to nest into a closed hand, weighty enough to throw cleanly.
The construction follows the same logic as Gem's leads and doorstops: cotton fibre, hand-spun under controlled tension, then shaped for a specific job. For juggling balls, the job is balance. Each ball is built to a particular firmness, solid enough to land cleanly in a catch, soft enough that a missed catch is forgiving.
Hand-stitched closed. The stitching reads as detail and does the structural work; it is what holds the ball under the constant low-grade shock of being thrown and caught.
A useable practice set; a workable display object. Either reading is the right one.
Gem Bowes learned to make rope at Arthur Beale, the Shaftesbury Avenue chandlery that has been splicing line since 1500-something. She works now from a Cambridge studio, hand-spinning flax and dead-stock yarn for dog leads, doorstops, juggling balls.
Gem Bowes learned to make rope at Arthur Beale, the Shaftesbury Avenue chandlery that has been splicing line since 1500-something. She works now from a Cambridge studio, hand-spinning flax and dead-stock yarn for dog leads, doorstops, juggling balls.
