Q: I want to learn to build illusions but don’t know how to get started.

A: Well, there are many very good books on the market. I would suggest if you are a novice that you begin with Paul Osbornes
Illusion Systems books on building. They can be very vague at times. In fact some of the theories are utterly stupid and the principles never worked out (sorry Paul), but for the beginner it is a good starting point with his Book No. 1. Aside from that you need to really read DEVICE & ILLUSION by one of the greatest minds of our time.... JIM STEINMEYER. Also..... Rand Woodbury’s books are excellent. Andrew Mayne’s books are OK, but tend to be like the Osborne plans when it comes to theory and principle. My suggestion is read anything you can. Take what is good. You will then learn what works and before you know it you will be creating your own ideas and collaborations

I may suggest Jim Sommer's plans or conjurer's plans to be more simple. But you have to decide about the size.
best regards.

As an illusion builder with a business that custom builds year after year, I would strongly suggest that before anyone buys a set of plans or a book, that they first take a good woodworking basic course through a local woodworking club or traveling woodworkers show that moves about the country. I suggest to people who ask me if they can build their own, to first buy a book titled; Measure Twice-Cut Once. Everyone is human (we hope) and to err is human, and mistakes can enter into any set of plans or drawings, I have always checked over every set of plans that we work with in our factory and even still find measurements that need to be changed according to what is being built and the materials available at the time from our suppliers,

[quote]On 2001-09-15 11:38, Billy Diamond wrote:
Q: I want to learn to build illusions but don’t know how to get started.

A: Well, there are many very good books on the market. I would suggest if you are a novice that you begin with Paul Osbornes
Illusion Systems books on building. They can be very vague at times[...]

This is EXTREMELY common in magic "blueprints", to the point of being universal. Even the best designers suffer from typos and mathematical errors; Jim Steinmeyer's "Modern Art" plans - which are some of the very best shop drawings available - have several incorrect and/or missing dimensions. What an EXPERT prop builder does is reproduce the layout in a good CAD program to check the dimensions and to make assistant-based adjustments. What an ADEQUATE prop builder does is double-check the dimensions on the original plan with a scale and a calculator. What an unknowledgeable beginner does is blindly lay out the pieces in plywood - using just the original measurements - and then complain about it later.

No one is perfect; not Osborne, not Steinmeyer, not anyone. If you expect all their measurements and dimensions to be correct without double-checking them, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Finally, let me just add something that has been said many times before: "A critic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Regards,
Thomas Wayne