by Matt Bower
Johnson Thinks Outside Bubble on Discovery TV
Keith Michael Johnson holds a distinction few can claim – he’s a soap bubble expert. Johnson of Warwick works full-time writing and performing educational shows for elementary school students, but it’s his latest show, The Secret World of Bubbles that landed him a segment spot on Discovery Channel’s Time Warp. The episode featuring Johnson, “Dry Ice Bomb” airs tomorrow night at 8 and again early Thursday at 12 a.m. on the Discovery Channel.
Read Bottom of this page.
REAL SIMPLE FAMILY Summer/2008
make soap
bubbles
Requires:
soap-bubble
solution and, Ideally, a humid day with an overcast
sky "Humidity helps
keep the bubbles from popping, and bubbles are more
colorful In less direct light," says Keith Michael Johnson,
a bubble artist In Warwick, Rhode Island,
who can create bubbles that are larger than a small
car. To read the full
article, Click
Here
Just in time for warm weather and outdoor events, I'm featured in the current issue of Spirit Magazine, the inflight magazine of Southwest Airlines.
This will lead you to the online version (without pics/text below). http://www.spiritmag.com/2008_04/clickthis/04soap.php
Soap Bubbles
How to Make Giant Soap Bubbles
Keith Johnson helps you supersize your Springtime.
For good, clean fun, nothing beats a soap bubble the size of your car. So says Keith Johnson, a graduate of Ringling Brothers Clown College and a professional performer for elementary school audiences. The 43-year-old Rhode Island resident built a career on this ephemeral art form, even receiving a State Council of Arts grant in 2004 to develop inventive bubble displays. Johnson’s eye-pleasing tricks include creating bubbles with his bare hands and building a tower of bubbles that do a bellydance on top of an inverted wine glass. Show up your bubblicious buddies by following his four easy steps to making your own giant soap bubble.
1. Start With the Solution.
Mix one part dish detergent—I’m a Dawn guy, myself, but other brands work fine—with eight parts water in a half-gallon bucket. Tap water will suffice, but if the water is hard, you’ll do better with filtered or distilled. For an even better bubble mix, add one-half part glycerin to make your bubble thicker and stronger. Now you need to make a wand. Get two 5-foot bamboo poles (available for about $1 each at a garden store), a 9-foot piece of thick string (such as cotton sash-cord), and a washer or any small weight. Make an equilateral triangle with the string, pick two corners, then tie one pole to each. Knot the washer at the third corner of the triangle so it dangles down between the two pole tips.
2. Dunk Away.
Hold the poles in front of you with the extended tips touching. Dunk the ends of the poles and the string into your soap solution. The cotton will absorb a great deal of liquid even though much will dribble off. Slowly raise the poles and the string out of the soap, but keep the pole tips connected; the wet points of the wand must stay in contact with each other. If you’re fortunate to have a breeze, position yourself so that the wind blows into your back. If there’s no wind at all, give yourself enough space to create a breeze by slowly taking several steps backward.
3. Wave Your Wand.
Very slowly, begin to separate the tips of the poles. As your poles come apart, you’ll create a swirling film within the string triangle. If you don’t see that pane of soap, dunk the tips of your poles in the bucket and try again. Lift the tips of the poles, extending the window above you. Make sure your string doesn’t hit the ground, since everything that touches the bubble must be wet. Begin to step backward as the bubble emerges in front of you.
4. Bask in Your Bubble.
Your emerging bubble will take the shape of a long, sinewy snake at first, then ease toward a big, plump sphere. To close off your bubble, continue to raise the tips of your poles, and then bring the poles back in contact with each other. The natural contraction of the soap window will cause the string to pull together. Lift up and away, with the dangling weight pulling off the top of the bubble as the last point of contact. Then have fun experimenting. You’ll be amazed by what you can create.
End. (FYI: Click Here to see video and find a more robust outdoor solution recipe.)
Providence Journal Nov. 20, 2007
From Longwood Gardens' (PA)
Children's Garden Opening Weekend Celebration.
From the Valley Press, RI September 20, 2007
If you are interested in reading the following article, Click Here.
RI East Bay Newspapers
Friday, July 7, 2006
Bubble magic packs the house at Weaver Library
By Kimberly Harper
"Standing room only" is not a phrase you usually think of when it comes to the library, but a lot of preconceived notions went out the window when bubble artist Keith Michael Johnson came to Weaver Library to entertain the kids on a recent Monday.
The activities room at Weaver was filled with kids and parents, to the point where library staff had to start turning people away. At 2 p.m., the line to get in was out the front door. By the time the presentation started, the kids were paying close attention to Mr. Johnson, who started things out by making simple bubble chains and clusters, an art first demonstrated by Eiffel Plasterer more than 100 years ago.
Mr. Johnson told the kids that no one ever tells him they want to be a bubble artist when they grow up, a phenomenon he can't quite grasp. "You can learn a lot from a bubble, and being an artist is awesome," he said.
He created flower shapes and sent bubbles within bubbles floating toward the ceiling. He broke large bubbles into smaller orbs, gigantic spheres that delighted everyone in attendance.
Bubble myths
Mr. Johnson said one myth about bubbles is that they only last a short time. The aforementioned Mr. Plasterer managed to keep one for 340 days before it met its demise, and though he never did reveal his secret for geriatric soap bubbles, Mr. Johnson said he had found a way to make one last, at least for a little while. Like Mr. Plasterer, he keeps his long-lasting bubbles in jars. He blew a bubble into a jar with a kind of platform in it and left it to the side for the rest of the presentation. Once, he said, he had a bubble last three days. He hoped the newly created one would make it to the end of the presentation.
Another myth is that you have to buy fancy bubble toys to do cool tricks with the soapy substance. Mr. Johnson showed kids several fun things that can be done with normal household objects. Cutting a two-liter soda bottle in three and removing the middle section creates a nice basin in the bottom and a good blowing tool with the top. Fun bubble tunnels can be made this way.
Bubbles are also durable if you handle them correctly. Wearing a winter glove - acrylic is best, but wool will work - will allow you to "bounce" bubbles off of your hands. Mr. Johnson also used a "clouder," a contraption he had that can make bubbles appear cloudy. When those bubbles pop, they leave behind a visible mist. He used paper tubes and wet plates to create different shapes and domes, and a special platform to create formations that included a carousel, snowman and even a cube. The cube-looking bubble was first made by a man named Tom Noddy, though people didn't think it could be done.
"Of course, it was the 70s," Mr. Johnson said. "Those things happened in your basement in New Jersey."
Bubble basics
Mr. Johnson named a third "bubble hero": Sterling Johnson, who claimed that all you really needed for bubble fun was some soapy water and your hands. Mr. Johnson made many bubbles this way, including some large shapes that seemed to dance and shape-shift, and another he bounced on his hand like a basketball. He used a special rope setup, and two volunteers, to make bubbles move along the track and "fly" into the air. He also used steam to make "ghosts," large orbs that floated through the air and appeared opaque.
But it was his final trick that amazed the kids the most. Using a special frame, Mr. Johnson created a large bubble around Allison Durbitt, 11, who stood in the middle of the frame for the stunt. And once the music had ended and the last trick was done, Mr. Johnson called the kids' attention to the little bubble in the jar.
"It's still alive," he said.
East Bay Newspapers • http://www.eastbayri.com/print/315905002493619.php
