Tight ropes and other toys.

Heavy metal and taut wire.

Tight ropes, or more porperly tight wires, are included in these pages because Jay built one from scratch in the summer of 1999, in an effort to expand the range of larger props available to the company.

Although we haven't quite got around to it yet, we do intend to build a slack rope in the near future. A slack rope is (normally) a hemp or jute rope slung loosely between two fairly high fixing points, which is then walked on, or more commonly, fallen from.

Tight wires and slack ropes have some techniques in common, and differ quite markedly in other respects. Both are great challenges for those willing to have a go, and are also excellent for promoting poise and awareness of body shape. In fact, dancers, acrobats, and other athletes and physical performers can benefit greatly from rope and wire walking, because of the way that good rope and wire technique promotes body awareness and encourages straightness of the spine.

About Jay's tight wire.

Jay's tight wire rig is fully portable, and is completely free-standing when erected. It was originally designed to fit comfortably in the back of Jay's battered Sierra Estate (with the back seats down, natch), which it does, as well as providing a longer walking length than many of the other free-standing portable designs knocking around at the time.

It takes around half an hour to erect from scratch to first use, and about fifteen minutes to disassemble and pack away again.

Specifications are as follows :-

Walking length - 4,000mm.
Overall length - approx. 4,300mm.
Height - 700mm.
Width - 800mm.
Maximum dismantled dimension - 2,270mm.
Wire height - 700mm.
Assembled weight - not sure, but estimated at around 80kg.
Walking wire diameter - 10mm.
Walking wire SWL - 5,500kg.
Walking wire nominal breaking strain - 27,500kg (yes, 27 tonnes).
Counter straining wire diameter - 5mm.
Counter straining wire SWL - >600kg.
Counter straining wire nominal breaking strain - 3,000kg.

What's it for, then?

Originally conceived as a 'centrepiece' prop for circus skills workshops, the tight wire has proved immensely popular wherever it has been taken, which is all the more surprising given the fiendish difficulty of successfully walking the wire with control (any palooka can leg it across a wire, but can they stand still or turn around. I think not!

At the time of writing, Jay can walk the wire, stop, turn round, juggle, and is working on sitting on a chair. He has yet to meet anybody with natural or 'instant' talent for wire walking, but we think it can be (just about) learned in an afternoon.

More about tight wires.

We will be placing a small gallery of photographs on this page in the near future, showing the rig overall and in detail. There are also some detailed drawings of Jay's design, and a pamphlet describing materials and construction methods, which we may publish for a small fee - unfortunately we cannot at present convert the drawings into a file type suitable for web publication.

If you would like to know more about tight wires, or you have something to contribute regarding ropes and wires, or if you would like to purchase a rig from JLCA, or would like to try building a rig yourself, then please contact us, explaining a bit about the nature of your enquiry.