Two Blue Bears and a Magic Crystal Ball

It was another cold morning, and I had a whole new group of creatures with me when I went out to make my frozen bubbles: a couple of Steiff bears (about two inches tall), some spider jewelry baubles, and some small rubber duckies. What a parade we would have made, if we'd all trooped out in a row!

The temperature was around 20 degrees F, maybe a few degrees lower than that, and it felt practically balmy to me, in comparison with some of our recent temps. (Get out the bikinis, girls!) The recent rains took much of our snow. I was able to leave my gloves off for most of the time without repercussions or misery.

I had made some new bubble mix, as my experience has been that brand new mix gets more surface motion as the crystals form, and for some of us, that's a big part of the joy of frozen bubbles. And I blew a few bubbles, and then placed my creatures around them.

The image above is my favorite of the "creature" features from this shoot. The two little Steiff bears, which I bought at a downtown shop on Allen Street (that shop and the Palmer Museum gift shop on campus have received TONS of my birthday and Christmas money over the years!), I positioned around my bubble for a fun "magic crystal ball" shot.

The two bears are actually two different shades of blue, and there would be a third one - lavender - in this shot, except that lavender bear refused to sit still! So I had to pull it from the starting line-up. And as you may have some idea what Steiff bears cost, for sure, I waited until that bubble was blown before placing them, as I didn't want even a smidge of sticky stuff on their fur!

The spiders, I will have to think about some more. I sort of thought of them as the Spiders from Mars, in a David Bowie kind of way. But they need a narrative and I just don't have one in my head for them yet. So I will work on that.

There are some fine, shapely fungi growing on the stump slices where I make my bubbles in the backyard, and they make perfect platforms for my bubbles. I like to blow a bubble onto each little spot, like a flower; and if I place several of them, they sometimes look like a bouquet. In the extras, you may see one of my pretty bubbles with a fungus that a friend identified as turkey tail - hey, that sounds good to me.

Overall, it was lots of fun, and the milder temperatures gave me more comfort in general, and for my hands and feet, in particular. And my bubbles took their slow time in the golden morning sun, and the surfaces swirled, and the veil parted and the crystals formed . . . and the tiny worlds came to be born again, anew, under my fingertips.

I have two photos, so let's permit me two soundtrack songs. First is the only version of this song that will do: Shaun Cassidy, with Do You Believe in Magic. Second is Styx, with Crystall Ball.

Bonus: here is a link to my canonical source of bubble making tips.