Quick Start: Wands
Wands:
If it forms a
closed loop, it's a wand. The loop doesn't have to be
circular. It's fun to make round bubbles with square wands.
It really plays tricks on kid's (and some adult's) minds.
The loop can be made of plastic, metal, paper, cotton
string, flesh or what ever. If it's not a closed loop,
you're not going to get a bubble film to form and you'll
have nothing to blow against to make a bubble. Bubbles are
trapped gas - usually your breath. Bubbles are spherically
shaped because the bubble skin is elastic like and it pulls
in from all directions at once, trapping the gas (air) in
the smallest possible area - a sphere. There, that wasn't
so hard now, was it?
Wands make
bubbles because they allow you to pass gas against a
stretchy film of soapy water. (Just like when you were a
kid, in the bathtub.) The bigger the film, the easier it is
to make a larger bubble. In the picture to the right,
The Bubble Lady is using a straw to make
small bubbles and a bubble trumpet (designed by
Lewis Pearl) made the larger bubbles.
Anything goes
when it comes to bubble wands. Hula hoops are used to make
big bubbles. In this photo the hilarious
Casey Carle encases a student in a large
soap bubble made with a big hoop and a small
reservoir/moat of juice. It's hard to see but maybe
Casey wrapped some cotton string around the hoop. You
see, the bigger the bubble the greater amount of liquid
you need to feed it while it's growing. A smooth plastic
hoop will shed it's supply of bubble juice fairly
quickly on the way up from this girl's feet to over her
head. Wrapping some string around the hoop allows it to
hold more liquid and build a bigger bubble. But watch
out, if you've got a wand that holds too much liquid,
your bubbles will be heavy and fall quickly and you'll
be spraying a lot of juice around. Wasting it. Which is
a bad thing when good quality solutions usually cost
between five and ten dollars a gallon. Not to mention
the fact that all that soapy liquid on the floor, walls
and furniture poses a safety hazard and will be
difficult to clean up.
David Stein's BUBBLE THING
is one of the
best known bubble wands. It's formed with a loop of
cloth that can be opened and closed by sliding a plastic
sleeve along the handle of the wand. This was designed
for outdoor play and really makes some very nice
bubbles. The wick (loop) material has small holes in it
to hold and release just the right amount of juice as
the bubble grows. Remember the weather though. In very
dry weather, even a wand like this isn't going to be
able to make huge bubbles. But when the humidity rises,
watch out for UFO sightings blocks away.
Wands don't
only make bubbles they catch and support them too. As long
as the wand is wet the bubble will not pop. It's amazing
how large a structure can be supported on a single-hoop,
plastic bubble juice wand.
When you get
a bubble dangling, try using a wet straw to blow more
bubbles onto it. Decorated bubbles like this take a bit of
practice, but that's half the fun.
While we're
on the topic of combining wands to make multi-effect
bubbles, I'd like to encourage you in your bubble play to
not limit yourself to only one type of wand. Before you get
started, gather up as many potential wands as you can find.
And then try them all!
Here, a couple of Fan Yang's wands are used. Look at
that big hoop, it has a ring of smaller circles around
it! And that thing that looks like a bubble trumpet is
blowing out a stream of connected bubbles through a
number of small openings.
In New
England, where I live, bubble toys come out in the stores
just before Easter and the post season sales of discounted
bubble stuff starts in mid August. It's a short but intense
season. Year round, small bubble toys can be found but the
really interesting bubble tools are available only in the
summer. Every year, there are more and more inexpensive
toys to try. So many possibilities, so little time.
Why do bubble
toys often resemble weapons? It must be because they sell.
I have noticed bubble toy manufacturers have been trying to
get away from the weapon motif recently. If it bugs you
that so many of them look like weapons, take heart.
They often
used to look like toy tobacco pipes! When enough moms
frowned upon encouraging the smoking habit, the toy makers
took to pistols. I have a few guesses about what's next for
the shape of wands, but I'm keeping my guesses to myself.
No need to give "them" any ideas, right?
Why buy when you
can make your own? In the picture on the right,
The Bubble Fairy looks like she's waiving
around large link chains on a stick to make bubbles at a
Renaissance Faire. What a fabulous idea! It's looking
good Bubble Fairy!
On the home page of SoapBubbler.com, there's a photo
of Eiffel Plaster. He is one of the grand
godfathers of modern day soap bubbling - and look at
what he's using - a newspaper rolled up into a cone. If
it's good enough for him, it's good enough for you. An
updated version of that paper cone design can be found
on the BUBBLE TOWN website.
I make my own
outdoor bubbling wands. I call it a tri-string wand but
it's based on a popular design that's found elsewhere on
the web. Big Bubble Magic is a terrific place to find
out more about this kind of bubbling. Kelly O'Neill has
put together a ground breaking web site. One of my
favorites. Not only does he show you what he does, he
takes the time to teach you how to do it. That's the
kind of bubbler I admire.
There are many different materials used to make the wicks
of tri-string wands. I use one hundred percent cotton
string that I braid to make various thicknesses.
Keep in mind
that the "V" string is approximately double the length of
the "top" string. I put a little weight at the point of my
V string, a washer or metal nut. That extra weight helps
the loop to close to finish off the bubbles and makes
dipping easier when using smaller containers of soap bubble
fluid. I've got tri-string wands of different sizes to
enable me to better adapt to the humidity on any given day.
My biggest
tri-string I call the BAMBOOZLER. You guessed it, the
sticks are long bamboo lengths that I bought at the garden
shop. Bamboo makes good tri-string sticks for a couple of
reasons. The first - they are cheap. Have you priced wooden
dowels recently? Second - They are long so the big bubbles
will form high enough in the air. Up there, there's a
chance of catching a breeze that will carry the bubble some
distance. If there's no breeze? At least they have longer
to fall. I can enjoy them on the way down.
With this
type of wand, on a calm day, you need to pull it through
the air to fill the bubble and then bring the tips of the
sticks together to close off the bubble. It won't take you
much time to realize "pulling" a bubble generates one
massive "tube", which looks pretty cool. Once you close the
tube, assuming it doesn't pop (these big bubbles are fairly
fragile), the tube will either collect to make one wobbly
sphere or the tube will divide into smaller sections.
Either way, you win. I can get pretty enthusiastic about
these wands. Can you tell?
Why make your
own when you already carry
around two of the best bubble wands
ever intelligently designed?
Sterling Johnson aka - The
Bubblesmith - is not only
the
pioneer of this
fabulous style of bubbling, I think he's one heck of a
guy. I'm sure many people feel the same way. He's not
just a bubbler, he's the cheerleading Guru of all things
bubble. His website has movies of him in action that
must be seen to be believed, but they only tell part of
his story. Never have I met the man face to face, yet he
graciously takes the time to respond to my bubble
questions. If he thinks they are hair-brained, he never
lets on. When you visit the Soap Bubble Fancier
group at Yahoo,
you will see Sterling's posts and marvel as I do at his
depth of knowledge and wild abandon in sharing what he
knows. He's always trying something new, or researching
something bubble or other. Okay, enough said. Visit his
website. Catch one of his shows. Hire him if you get the
chance.
Now where was
I? Right. Hand blown bubbles are really fun to make. It's a
powerful physical connection you get with something you've
previously believed to be too tender to touch. Your hands
become the bubble wands. Fingers laced with tiny gaps
between will spew a blizzard of tiny bubbles. When you make
a big circle of fingertips touching fingertips and thumb
tips to thumb tips, and blow through that soap film, you're
in for a very nice time. You'll feel the weight of the
bubbles as you catch them and bounce them in your palms
like jellyfish. You'll blow chains of bubbles onto your
palms and connect them like garland between your
outstretched hands. Oh, there's so much you can do. Just
ask Sunbeam, that's her picture above.
Thank you
again Sterling for bringing this to life for us. I only
hope we can continue to invent and delight in it long
enough to think up some new things for you to try. I do
believe that would make your day.
Quick Start
Lesson Links: 1: Where . 2:
Weather
3: Wands . 4:
Wet Stuff
