My mom wanted a noisy belt to practice bellydancing in. She used to take lessons back in the early 70's. Her instructor at the time told her that if you couldn't hear your belt, you weren't doing it right. :) Anyway, we looked everywhere for those little coins/bells you see on bellydancer costumes. No luck near us. Then, while having a refreshing drink after dancing, we came up with using the bottle caps instead. The following pics are of these belt attempts. I must say, they are indeed noisy!
Need a close up?
The caps were folded in half with a vise. Then, hung with fishing lure attachments to rings made of coiled wire clothes hanger jump rings. The sound of this belt is much lower and different than the flat caps below and is my mom's favorite belt for shimmying.
Another belt made from caps smashed flat and attached with plain lanyard hooks, shows my first attempts at using the tabs for the actual belt. I was later able to find fairly inexpensive clapper bells on eBay from a native american supply store. Not sure why they are selling bells from India, but it was a great bargain. The belt is weaved together with fuzzy yarn.
Here is a close up showing a tag we added with our joke of a slogan and the most vulgar of all bellydance poses as a logo.
"Go Ahead, Shake Your Can!"
I love these belts! I have plenty of can tabs and a grocery sack overflowing with bear caps (collected fro ma previous job as wells as a friend who bar tends)
ReplyDeleteI am curious about where to find the rings in the first belt?
If you don't mind sharing of course!
Great work and keep updating!
The rings on the belt are made of wire hangers wrapped over a broom handle to make a large coil. Then I took my coil to the dremel and cut them apart into jump rings.
ReplyDeleteYou could use key rings or large washers just as well. We weaved a thin scarf, fabric or yarn through the rings to join them.