The Glitter, Glycerin, and Glue Disaster

The snow globe workshop is the third video I have made for Breyer and there were bloopers that had to be cut out of every single one of them. But the bloopers in the snow globe video topped them all.

Between the glycerin fiasco, losing all the white glitter down the drain, or the glue not adhering to the Stablemate after water was put in the globe, I had to either reshoot much of the video or I could have Cole add a note while he was editing.

I chose to have Cole add that note - Lisa was doing the filming and it was early September and school had just started. She was too busy to come back and reshoot the whole thing again. (It took us over three hours for a 16 minute video.)

So, what happened to cause all those problems? After all, I'd made snow globes before so I'd had practice making them. 

The first issue was the glycerin. In preparation, I'd read some tutorials online, and every one of them listed glycerin as an ingredient. Those directions stated time after time that the glycerin would make the water thicker and so the glitter would stay afloat longer. Didn't have glycerin? Those tutorials then suggested using vegetable oil.

The infamous glycerin bottle on the left next to the gold glitter.

Vegetable oil?? That should have been the red light to NOT use the glycerin. Glycerin is also an oil and oil and water don't mix.

But what do I know? I figured that since every how-to I'd read said to use it, I would. Big, big mistake.

Using the recommended proportion of one part glycerin to four parts water, I added the mixture to the bigger globe. It didn't look quite right; you could see the oily glycerin in bubbles floating on the water. Maybe when I sealed the globe and did some shaking it would be okay?

I poured in the glitter and then picked up the base with the Fighting Stallion glued to it. Flipping it over to be sure the glue was still holding, I then inserted the model into the glycerin/water.

As soon as those glued hooves and tail submerged, the model came off the base and began floating. Dismayed, I fished him out over the sink, pulling out a heavily oiled pony that was covered in glitter and glycerin. 

This was NOT going to work, and I needed to start over, so I dumped the water, glycerin, and glitter down the sink. What a mess! The glycerin clung to the sink (which meant the glitter did, too) and it clung to the model. It took me a while to clean that mess up. ("Sparkling" clean when the sparkle is due to glitter is just not the same thing. Trust me on that.)

Getting ready to film that last part again.

It took me a little time to regroup and think about how to fix the issues. The glycerin? I'd eliminate that. The glitter that went down the drain? Since I'd used all the white up, I'd use silver. The glue? I tried a second one that was purported to be water proof (it did not hold), and then at Lisa's suggestion, I tried Gorilla Glue. 

Success! The Fighting Stallion did not float away when I tested him in a sink full of water!

 

Set up to film again - to make room for the table that I sat at, everything else was shoved to one side of my office. Lisa put a chair for herself behind the ring light. It was a tight squeeze, but it worked. She dropped by after school one afternoon and we filmed the last part again.

The Mini Whinny unicorn (who is made from a different plastic and never had glue issues) turned out really well.

And the charcoal Fighting Stallion? I held my breath when we filmed him - I was so afraid that the Gorilla Glue would fail. 

But the glue held and actually is still holding now two months later.

Despite the glitter, glycerin, and glue disaster, the film was edited and sent to Breyer before the deadline and I could relax. I am still wondering, though, what is it about the Stablemate plastic that interfered with the gluing process. 

I keep both snow globes here on my desk to enjoy. I give them a good shake every now and then, because, you know, snow globes!