Hula Hoops for All Ages!
Danielle demonstrating her hoops
This week I interviewed Danielle Weissman, a local hula hoop maker that demonstrates, sells and allows trials of her hula hoops at the Lauraville Tuesday Market Connection. She just got into making them about a month ago, and has been hooping for about six months now.
Hula hooping is definitely a hit at the Tuesday market. The kids love to test our her homemade hoops and practice as they try to emulate Danielle’s moves.
She uses very high grade tubing as well as durable grip tape to make the designs and ensure that the hoops are of higher quality than something one could pick up at K-Mart or a toy store. She also makes two sizes to accommodate to adults as well as children; the size of the hoop also affects the hoop user’s control. The larger ones are easier and go slower.
Some kids try different hoop sizes
Danielle was inspired by her friend that did fire hoop performances in Los Angeles and thought that it would be something fun and interesting to do and has now turned it into her own small business. She hoops with the local kids and tries to help them to become better hoopers themselves and adds a nice dimension to the Tuesday Market.
Josh,
I thought this post was really intersting. Actually, I live in Baltimore city (Federal Hill) and did not much about Lauraville neighborhood. I have lived in the area for 6 years and have really stayed to the areas that I am familiar with. So I find your blog very intersting as I am learning new things and hopefully will find new places to go.
Not sure if this would be helpful but I was also having trouble finding recent articles/blogs about my topic in general searchs. I signed up for google alerts and have found many articles. Also, not sure if you ever look in the City Paper. They sometimes have articles on specific neighborhoods in the city. They are free and can be picked up pretty much anywhere in the city.
Good luck!
Marci
One of the bars that I currently work at is in the neighborhood (only on the belair road side of hamilton), so I am in the area frequently and I am excited to see the outcome of your project. I had no idea that people were really that involved in the community and people like Danielle who sells these handmade hula hoops. I bet that the interview you had with her was quite different and interesting! Sounds like fun. Anyway, people in the neighborhood are always talking about businesses, road contruction, and asthetic appeal and how the area is being “re-built”. No one really goes behind the scenes and finds the unknown stories like you found, great job.
Hey Josh, Thanks for this article. I just started a website. Is it okay if I link to this on my site?
Danielle