A few years ago, I saw a pair of fireballs hurtling around someone's head in a mesmerising pattern, and I thought to myself 'hey, that's pretty cool!'. As it turns out, that person had a pair of Poi (not the finger food!). I got myself a pair of tennis balls and some string, and after a few evenings practice (and a few beers ;)) I could just about get the most basic move - the forwards weave. It wasn't long before I was truly hooked and although I'm not quite as obsessed, I still enjoy building and playing with Poi.

• Socks - Make your own sock poi. By far the best option for ptractice poi in my opinion!
• Tennis Balls - These are what I learnt on. They have less wind-resistance than socks, and aren't stretchy.
• Kevlar (Tube wicks) - Your first stop for fire poi. The design I've developed is cheap and one of the safest ways to construct kevlar wicks.
• Wire wool - Not for the faint hearted! Here's how I built my bird feeder cages.
• LED (Basic) - A good place to start if you're interested in building yourself a set of glow-toys.
• LED (PIC controlled) - My current project. I'm calling them HyperLights