I have a nearly unending supply of bamboo (green at the moment) and was wondering if anyone knows of anything tricky to do with it.

I am curently building something for my wife to use in Bible school with a bunch of it, and I love the ease with which it can be worked.

Any project ideas for Bamboo?

Thanks
Steve

P.S. My supply includes bamboo up to 6" in diameter (but only a few) and some over 40' long (plenty) with plenty averaging 2"-4" in diameter, and 30' in length.

P.P.S. It is a terrible thing to have a good source of materials, and no projects for it.

Just a thought, but what about aerial fishing? The handle, being naturally hollow could be tricked to deliver the goods.

Also, bamboo Chinese Sticks are not uncommon. Of course, it would require a smooth-walled insert for the guts.

Another thought... Owen makes tables either from, or to resemble bamboo.

http://owenmagic.com/Accessories/accessories.html

There should be plenty of internet info on furniture construction with bamboo and rattan.

Owen doesn't use bamboo to make anything. They turn the "bamboo" from seasoned wood. While very strong, bamboo is good for certain things, but it has a tendency to split.

The original Silent Mora Bamboo Wands (Chinese Sticks) were really made of bamboo, but some of the sticks were not straight and didn't work properly.

Tables and things like that would be good.

You could do a Gilligan/Castaway-themed show, and make props/staging to resemble a deserted island. At the end, you could even make a human-powered bamboo helicopter or bamboo airplane appear. (How else could they get off the island?)

If the professor can make all those things from bamboo, why can't a magician? Hehehe!

- Donald.

I once did a "Temple of Benares" type trick that was painted to look like a grass hut (I still have it, but haven't used it in years). I performed it to Don Ho's "Little Grass Shack."

I used bamboo spears in place of swords. My assistant, who entered in a black pantsuit, emerged from the trick dressed in a grass skirt, lei, and aloha shirt.

I had bamboo "borders" painted on the prop itself, but actual bamboo framework would look very nice.

In Osborne's System of Illusions Volume 3, there is a great routine that is jungle themed. It uses two illusions and one of them is a cage appearance. This was designed to use bamboo for the cage bars (even though Paul says he just used a scroll saw to cut out plywood in the shape of bamboo).

Evan

You could use the bamboo to get a panda to come out of the zoo and be in your act and feed it to him.

*******

Really though, you could make a nice production box to do with pandas.

Depends on the size, I love bamboo as a magic wand, especially for Indian Cups and/or the Rezvani Bowl.

The original chop cup was made out of bamboo,like the bamboo drinking glasses import stores used to sell.

Sounds like you need to package it up and sell it to all these people with wonderful ideas for its use. You could become the official Magic Bamboo Dealer. Once the stuff gets going you just can't get rid of it can you.

Martin