I posted my blog entry on a 3D unit sphere on my facebook profile and got a really interesting and insightful response from MCP. Check it out:

You're talking about projection. You could look into projecting a sphere onto a flat plane, strangely, there's a lot of information already related to that... ;) Except your sphere is invisible and your stating that there are basically no '3d' patterns that when projected onto a flat plane can't be replicated by 2d ones?

Well for poi, that might be the case, projection has some interesting issues, I'm not sure how it works with a moving point over a sphere, but it might be the case that thou you can replicate the pattern, you might not be able to replicate the exact timing.

Further, yes, a 2d trick can replicate a 3d trick, but only in one plane, so, er, for one plane of viewing. the real 3d trick will also have it's pattern visible for other planes of viewing. ... Read More

Further again, since poi has only one end, hahahahahahahaahaaaaaa, yeah it can't be in two planes at once, like a staff can. So it probably doesn't apply to staffs like you think it will.

And er, also fans, hoops, crosses, s staffs, are 2D props, unlike poi or staff which are 1D so obviously won't work that way.

But even thou they are 1D, if you imagine the line of the poi as a line on the plane. You can still move the plane, rather than spinning the poi in the plane.

Imagine doing a wheel plane horizontal float up at say your ... Read Moreleft side with you left hand. If you imagine the plane as a wall on the side of you, then if you're very skilled and perhaps have stiffish poi, while the poi is still horizontal you manage to pull it to the right side of your body, then you've managed to translate the plane from wheel plane on your left to your right, the plane passing through your body.

Interesting--thinking of 3 dimensional spinning as being the point of start and 2D slices as being projections of it is a fascinating idea. One outcome of this already discussed on the

Tech Poi tribe

on Tribe.net is flattening the standard figure-8 pattern into a wall-plane infinity loop. I need to work through the concept further, but from what I've played with so far, poi still has a limiting factor that no other tool save rope dart does: it is flexible and therefore must enter follow gravity beneath the hand or the hand must keep the poi in motion. Any attempt to have the hand and poi trace different planes is unstable because of how the hand redirects poi inertia. Granted, people probably once said the same thing about cateyes, but I'm really truly not seeing any possibilities for spinning with one hand in multiple planes simultaneously, in which case the conclusion that 3D spinning ultimately is only either a projection of 3D shapes as MCP here suggests or a 2D slice of such shapes is still the correct one.