LanternSmith

Bringing flow-artists a full lineup of high-intensity phosphorescent spinning tools that will bring a new ambiance to the darkness of the night.

Last year at FireDrums, I had a major life-changing event that ultimately resulted in me leaving my career. Spinning is very important to all of us here. So you'll understand why I've decided to take my life in a new direction more focused on the flow-arts. As far as I'm concerned at this point, my life is devoted to developing the flow-arts community. I think it has the potential to become a sign

ificant cultural movement in the performance arts (if it hasn't already) and has the power to inspire and empower the lives of thousands. So my friend Annie Guest and I started this company called "LanternSmith". We wanted to bring something new to the spinning scene...and more specifically, we wanted to bring something that reflects those things which spinning means most to us: Creativity, empowerment and community. LanternSmith will focus on community first and foremost. All of our custom fabricated materials will be built in-house or outsourced to other spinning-houses in an attempt to bring jobs to spinners around the country. Our props are going to take a different direction from the usual contenders of fire and electricity: Glow-in-the-dark compounds. LanternSmith is focusing on products that are completely self-illuminated without electricity or chemical reactions. Totally solid-state light emission from a new family of phosphorescent compounds discovered and refined in recent years. It is totally non-toxic or radioactive, never deteriorates, can take a charge millions of times without losing effectiveness. It glows many MANY times brighter and longer than the glow-in-the-dark materials we're all used to seeing in cheap toys and toothbrushes. In fact, it glows brighter than EL-wire (like a glowstick) after a full charge and gradually fades over a period of over 12-16 hours. We will supply products integrated with custom versions of the compound into everything the flow-arts community is accustomed to: rope, cord, sheet, plate, balls/spheres, staves, rods, handles...you name it...it can ALL glow brilliantly and uniformly. I chose this mainly because I want to bring four things to you:

1. Illuminated poi tethers for the tech-spinners. Pendulum poi are the go-to design standard now for tech spinning and I wanted to SEE the tether as it plays a significant role in the effects inherent to tech-spinning. This also goes for my other passion and creation of the Puppyhammer, which involves a lot of complex interactions between the yoke-cord and the upper-body. So LanternSmith developed a cable that glows like EL-Wire but doesn't take any electricity and is many thousand times more resilient and flexible.

2. Chill, eerie, meditative ambiance. The flow-arts community is made up of performers, so it's no question that brighter, louder, hotter, and more complex/extreme is usually perceived as being better. But the flow-arts movement is also about personal growth from within...learning how to learn, and how to balance one's self like we do with the props we spin; LanternSmith will be focusing on adding an emphasis to optimum introverted experience in addition to the already extroverted nature of our demographic.

3. Direct interactive creativity with the illumination of the prop. We spent most of our research and design phase refining the available ways in which spinners can charge the props. It uses UV light which can be built into many interesting and unique packages like laser pointers and a custom irradiating lamp designed and fabricated at LanternSmith. This is perhaps the most novel element of what we want to share with you: the ability to paint light in realtime directly onto your tool in unique and creative ways, even integrating them into your performances.

4. The Umoja universal-coupler system. The Umoja System is a design standard meant to bring all prop-companies together under one cross-compatible platform. It allows handles, spheres, tubes, rope, lights, controllers, etc...to all be modular with respect to one-another in a stable, strong and reliable way. It’s also designed to be easily built and is made entirely from inexpensive off-the-shelf components available in any local hardware store or online distributor. This means that Flowtoys’ ‘flowlights’ can fit onto our poi leashes. Trick Concepts’ glowpoi can be integrated into the ends of our staves, and YOU can make whatever you want and put it on any compatible tools available, including fire-tools. Umoja modules can also serve as a power-coupler to move electricity and/or digital commands through components...imagine poi handles with an integrated battery pack, pattern and color controls which feed data and power through the leash into the head. If any prop-makers are interested in joining the Umoja standard, just let us know and we’ll send you the specs and review tolerances and manufacturing techniques with you.

06/30/2024

https://youtu.be/K1AYNV2DyzM?si=AcvlDDOGf2uooaam

Updated version. Includes important additional info.0:00 Oxbow anatomy1:14 Cutting tethers4:18 Mounting the first head8:11 Setting the first poi node9:38 Set...

12/18/2020

New low profile and adjustable MicroNodes for smoother Dartstyle on a puppyhammer:
http://www.lanternsmith.com/micro-nodes/

03/21/2020

The Tarsus 3 piece collapsible firestaff is back this weekend

03/14/2020

The Tarsus is coming back soon :3

Dainty, 5/8" Dia.
750g @ 64 inches.
3 piece collapsible.
High rolling and lateral inertia.
7-9 minute burn time.

02/17/2018

Bespoke Spinoptic Kitesurfer.

09/07/2017

Hey guys,
Lanternsmith has upgraded to Pom grip 2.0! New material, new texture.
We're also excited to announce the new "Ovo" grip! A longer version of the Pom with a larger cavity designed to add weight for gunslingers and/or led mods.

One of the lasting critiques we received about the silicone Pom was that it was too slippery for some folks when wet, so we've changed to a material used to make toothbrush handles...seemed appropriate.

The legacy glow in the dark Poms will still be silicone/1.0 due to manufacturing limitations in our shop, but will still be available.

I'm here if you have any questions!
www.Lanternsmith.com

11/08/2016

Spinoptic Staff in the wild. Photo courtesy Jeremy Menefee.

10/19/2016

Boop!
www.lanternsmith.com/spinoptic-poi
Updated pictures and more video to come...
And if you have SpinOptics Version 1.0, here's a conversion kit!
www.lanternsmith.com/led-upgrade-kit

• Our objective is to bring as much of the aesthetic from daytime spinning into night as possible.• The glowing tethers add an entirely new dimension to spinning glow props at night.• The glowing handles unlock all sorts of tosses that are difficult without visual feedback.

10/30/2015

Hey E'rybody! Our 90mm Umoja System is finally complete! Starting this Sunday, the full lineup of 90mm Umoja Spheres and components will be available for purchase, to ship starting Monday the 2nd.

In the mean time, here's a li'l video showing how the system works.

Colors available will be Frosted White (what the SpinOptics use ;) ), Ivory White, Black (Translucent), Purple (Translucent), Aqua Blue (Semi-Translucent), Green (Translucent), Yellow (Translucent), and Orange. Mostly fluorescent, and yes, mostly translucent!

https://youtu.be/jG5_oPud8Ws

LanternSmith is proud to announce the Umoja Cartridge system; allowing for simple and fast tether attachment for our 90mm Umoja spheres. Adjustable weight up...

04/22/2015

Happy Earth Day, everyone.

03/16/2015

Final SpinOptic components are DONE!
We begin final assembly this week and will be sending them out as we finish each set. Priority goes to who ordered first.
Get ready guys, here they come!

01/27/2015

Fire Painter of a different variety....

01/25/2015

Great resource for anyone trying to keep track of the 2015 festival season. So many thanks to DrexFactor for putting this together again this year!

http://drexfactor.com/calendar/2015

This is a listing for all the flow and fire events I'm aware of for the coming year. If you run an event and would like it listed here, you can let me know by submitting it here.

01/01/2015

Wow. Welcoming the New Year in the best way possible - SpinOptics are a go!!!

2014 was a long, long year, but you guys just blew our minds with your faith in the SpinOptics project, and sharing our excitement. Thank you, for so much more than you could possibly know.

Now, time to digest the past couple of days, then get to work!!

THANK YOU!
xoxo Your Smithies, Charlie & Annie

12/28/2014

Drex rockin' Spinoptics for xmas!

12/03/2014

Some more shots of the new SpinOptic Poi from LanternSmith, in action! Visit www.LanternSmith.com to preorder yours and help us make them available for everyone!
Thanks to Nancy Howe for the photos, and Ben Drexler and Morgan Howe for the demo!

12/02/2014

DrexFactor review of the SpinOptic Poi just dropped!

http://youtu.be/ssDFJ60-JqM

http://www.drexfactor.com/support Probably the most exciting thing to happen to poi since technora--LanternSmith's new Spinoptic poi! Fiberglass tethers and ...

11/23/2014

Okay everyone! They're available for prebuy!
http://www.lanternsmith.com/spinoptic-contact-poi/

11/22/2014

Fantastic thermal imaging video of fire poi. Props to Matthew Brenner for the work that went into this - make sure to crank the video quality as high as it'll go!

http://youtu.be/QpJKTYSky74

What you are looking at is no post-processing effect, it was not made with an app for iphone, lol. This video is an infrared thermal image, and was created u...

10/15/2014

The Momentum DVD Kickstarter is go!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/363021998/momentum

Momentum - A collaborative DVD Project bringing together top innovators of the Spinning Arts with a common goal - to push their art.

10/15/2014

Check out this awesome tutorial from the guys over at on how to convert LS Pomgrips over to LED!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyqiSHsJ7gU&app=desktop

Quick, single take video on how to make LED handles for a cost of around $30. They feel amazing to spin with and are lightweight at 22 grams or 28 grams for ...

Address

Franconia, NH

Website

http://www.lanternsmith.com/

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