Pen Spinning
an introduction...
Hey there, it's Aries here. This thread's purpose is to serve you with knowledge relevant to pen spinning. There are many people with little or no knowledge or understanding of the pen spinning world.
Pen Spinning is the manipulation of the pen in a form of "contact juggling"
Pen spinning can be defined in many ways. It has no definite meaning; people may call it an art form others, a manipulation. It's up to the pen spinner. It's anything you want it to be.
There are thousands of pen spinners worldwide. A forum like this was started so that pen spinners from all over the world would be able to communicate, trade, sell, buy, and share common interests with each other.
This forum is called UPSB [( Universal Pen Spinning Board )(
http://upsb.info )].
Because pen spinners are quite numerous you would expect that there would be a few selected famous pen spinners. These famous pen spinners have made a great impact upon the pen spinning community.
Here they are in random order:
-Bonkura
-CrAsH
-David Weis
-Kam
-etc.
On your own time you may learn and discover and gain knowledge aobut who these people are and what they have done to improve the world of pen spinning.
The origins of pen spinning was said to have been from Japan, but no one knows for sure. People have their own opinions, but it is also said that the Japanese spinners are the best. Best in style, fluidty, and difficulty. But once again, people have their own opinions about who's the best.
There are special pen spinning pens. These are referred to as "Mods", otherwise known as modifications. Pen spinners figured, it would be a lot easier if the average pen/pencil were to be modified to accompany the spinning. Usually, Mods consist of several different pens and require using tools to modify different parts of pens. You will find that the tools essential for modifying a pen are as listed: a dremel, a x-acto knife, pliers, a drill. Those are the tools in which many of the pen modifications require use of. There are alternatives, but subtitutes may not suffice in certain cases.
Many people like to modify pens more so they do pen spin. As with myself, I do enjoy to modify pens. It enables creativity and great input. There are many famous mods as well, mainly from the famous spinners themselves. Just like everything else, pactice makes perfect. At first your modfications maybe "noobish", but don't fret. Modding takes practice and some getting used to. You will gain knowledge of the subject and improve. A helpful hint; ask a lot of questions.
Buying, selling, and trading is a big part of the pen spinning community. Because pen spinning is worldwide there are limits to the resources people have. People in the USA can't find pens that only appear in Japan. Thus, pen spinners have created a market upon which to achieve their resources from. Many choose the option to buy from an online store. A popular website is
htttp://www.penwish.com. You may find pen on auction sites such as, Ebay and Amazon. Trading, buying and selling may also be done by pen spinners themselves. A helpful hint; be careful with who you talk to and associate with, don't give out personal information until you have come to a deal, be smart!
Pen spinning in action. First, you should know that there are four fundamental tricks.
- Thumbaround (TA)
- Sonic
- Charge
- Fingerpass (FP)
These four fundamentals are the basics of pen spinning. Learning these fundamentals should be the first tricks you learn on your way as a pen spinner. Then as you become better you may advance and master more difficult tricks. Tutorials for tricks are all over "Youtube", just search and you will find many. Some good tutors are Eso and myself.
Pen spinning also intergrates contests and tournaments. Just recently CrAsH held a World Tournament. The top spinners from all over the world competed with each other. Upon that note, judging of pen spinning is based upon many things. The main two are: fluidity and difficulty. Fluidity is the smoothness of the execution of the tricks performed. Difficulty is how hard it is to be able to accomplish certain trick(s) and combo(s).
Here is where I will close. I hope you've learned much about the pen spinning world. See you soon and have fun!
-Aries