Pop-Over Silk Dye

by Eleazar Goodenough

Professor Spellbinder was discussing some of his ideas with a bunch of Wiz Kids, and I heard him say something about using a dye tube to expand a silk rather than just change its color. Apparently it was a discussion he was also having on one of the magic forums. Anyway, the idea got me to thinking of how I would do the trick. I was taught the dye tube several years ago, but my hands were too small at the time to do the dye tube moves the way the Professor does. My hands are bigger now, but a dye tube is still a big heavy clunky thing for a kid like me to be trying to conceal.

So I came up with my own way of doing the dye tube and it works with either a small silk and a large one, for Professor Spellbinder's expansion silk idea, or two silks the same size but different colors. The best part is that you can do both effects, one after the other, or you can dye any number of silks, one by one. Professor Spellbinder has done the research and checked all his sources and says that this is something new and original, so unless someone can show us that someone else thought of it first, I'm naming the effect the Pop-Over Silk Dye and claiming all rights to the invention, including manufacturing rights (the Professor told me to add that last part).

Here is my little 3-D graphic man, Wiz Kid Jeep, to illustrate the effect:

An ordinary piece of paper is rolled into a tube. The Magician takes a blue silk and pokes it into one end of the paper tube, then puts the tube to his lips and blows through the tube. Out of the other end of the tube comes a red silk. If you want to blow up a silk, the magician could put in a 12 inch silk and when he blows it through the tube, it expands to a 24 inch silk (or larger).

No metal dye tube is needed and the tube is empty before the change and after the change, so there is nothing to hide. The silk can be shown on both sides and can be sheer so you can almost see right through it.

It's not just for magicians with small hands. I have arthritis, and can no longer manipulate a big heavy metal dye tube the way I used to, so Eleazar's Pop-Over Silk Dye is what I'm using from now on! Spellbinder

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