Ooze
At a friends house for dinner recently they had the lava lamp going….you know where I’m going with this don’t you. Yep, I was telling them that I was off to search lava lamp how-to’s! “Can’t be that hard….” I believe were my parting words.
I’ve categorised this post under techniques – extreme, because I think I’ve finally found something that I’d like to make, but could be just beyond my craftiness and potential death is not something I usually have to consider when making something! The reason a lot of us craft is the desire to give a handmade gift to our loved ones and there’s the added obvious thrifty factor that also drives us. We know that handmade gifts are so much more heartfelt than store bought…well, I’d never say no to one of Tom Dixon’s Jack lights.
My point? Yes I could make a lava lamp, however I think this is one project I’ll skip. I was never that great at science and when I started the research for this post, I came across terms like “hydrophobic solvent” and “immiscible fluids”. Then I read that it would probably be cheaper to buy one than to make one and that success isn’t always guaranteed. So, I finally caved and decided that this is one craft I don’t need to try.
Interestingly the “lava” is mineral oil, the liquid around the lava is rubbing alcohol (this is my very simple explanation, see links below for more detail).
Deadly lava lamp
What the Wikipedia has to say
Flickr tag, Flickr group
Excellent resource, Oozing Goo, including formulas, the myth of creation
Another recipe here
The modern day lava, not as nice in my opinion
Ebay vintage
If anyone reading this does make or has made one please do comment! Would love to hear about your experience.
February 7th, 2006 at 10:27 am
I will have to ask a friend who I know was looking into making them – apparently you can get the blobs to go into different shapes -