Giant Bubbles – Our Curious Home

I enjoy making giant bubbles! It is very relaxing to slowly let a bubble off of the sticks, then watch it soar, change shape, and drift off. I have a gallon or so bubble juice, and some bubble sticks stashed outside, ready for some quick bubbling when I have a few minutes to spare.

Blowing a giant soap bubble — Bubbles are Fun!

Bubble Mix Recipe

Ingredients:

1 heaping Tablespoon guar gum
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup Dawn Ultra
~ 3/4 to 1 gallon warm water. I use a gallon milk jug to hold the completed solution.

Instructions:

Mix the guar gum and baking soda into the Dawn. Stir very thoroughly until you get a smooth creamy consistency. As you stir, the mix should thicken. See the illustrations, below.
Pour the mixture slowly into the water.
Mix the water and the solution thoroughly.

giant soap bubble ingredients — Ingredients: 1 cup Dawn Ultra, 1 heaping tablespoon guar gum, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda.

adding soap bubble ingredients — Add guar gum and baking soda to the Dawn Ultra

starting bubble mixing — Mix thoroughly! This solution needs a LOT more mixing.

Bubble solution mixing done — Mixing is done. The solution is “creamy”, with bubbles.

Adding bubble mix to water — Add the bubble mix to about 3/4 gallon water.

Bubble Wands:

There are many different types and sizes of bubble wand. Here is a good smaller wand to try:

Materials:

6 ft. cotton twine
2 zip ties
2 wood roasting skewers, about 30″ long

Tools:

Utility knife
side cutters

Instructions:

Cut the points off of the skewers
Make a loop of the string. Knot the ends together.
Make a knot about 2″ from the first knot.
About 1/2 of the way down the loop, take one string, and fold it back on itself. Make a knot at the fold.
Make a knot about 2″ from the one in step 4.
Zip tie one skewer between the first set of knots.
Zip tie one skewer between the second set of knots.
Clip off the extra length of the zip ties.
Done!

Materials to make a bubble wand — Materials and tools to make a bubble wand.

bubble wand string — Knot the end of the loop. make another knot about 2″ back.

Bubble wand string knots — Create a second pair of knots, making a triangle, with knots at 2 corners.

making a bubble wand — Cut off the pointy skewer ends. Zip tie between each set of knots to fasten the string to the skewers.

Blowing Bubbles:

Bubble blowing is fun any time. However, the weather will influence the size and duration possible for the bubbles. If it is raining, the rain drops will just pop the bubbles. If it is sunny and windy, the bubbles will be smaller, and short lived.

Bubbles love humidity! The best times for bubble making is when it is overcast and humid, but not very windy. Early morning works well. Just after a rainstorm works well.

Instructions:

Pour bubble solution into a convenient container. I use a cheap paint roller tray from a discount store (about $1.00 each)
Dip the loop into the bubble juice. make sure there are no dry spots in the loop.
Keeping the sticks together, slowly raise the loop up in the air.
Slowly open the loop up. There should be a good film filling up the string loop.
Let the breeze blow a bubble. If there is no breeze, slowly move backward, or wave the sticks around.
To launch the bubble, bring the sticks back together. this will pinch off the bubble.
Done!