Trouble with Bubbles

Playing with fire is never a good idea. In fact, when it is done indoors, it becomes a horrible idea. Thus, I decided it would be appropriate for my “horrible” blog post. To link fire with my ISP topic, bubbles, I decided to devise a way to make flammable bubbles. Flammable bubbles are traditionally made with hydrogen from either a chemical reaction (such as hydrochloric acid and zinc) or from electrolysis (passing electricity through water), both of which are quite difficult and finicky, and would’ve required several additional purchases. Still, I wanted to make flammable bubbles, and so I perused my house for possible materials. I wandered into the garage and a blue canister of propane with a torch attached caught my eye. After reading up on the dangers of propane, I realized that it was even more volatile than hydrogen, making this a doubleplusgood idea. So, I busted out my faithful container of bubble solution, stuck the torch in, opened the valve, and blew some bubbles...

Since I am unable to draw or paint for my life, for this ISP entry, I have decided to use bubbles to do the hard work for me. I will be making bubble art; in essence, I will be using colored bubble solution to create fascinating designs. I first made some bubble solution. I kept the ingredients as simple as possible to not interfere with the pigment and the bursting pattern – thickeners such as corn syrup are useful to make the bubble last longer but create weird stringy bursting patterns. Then, I scavenged our cabinets for possible colors. I settled on using food coloring, of which I could find four colors of. I divided the bubble solution into four equal portions for the four colors and I eyeballed a rough amount of food coloring to put into each portion. Then, I blew bubbles. However, blowing bubbles is not the point of this entry. I realized that despite how entertaining blowing bubbles was, I needed to make art, and so I put a piece of paper to catch the bubbles...