This section is, in my opinion, the "heart" of the entire page and is dedicated to the creation of original bubble effects and their inventors.

I'll try to list here almost all the effects that can be considered original from specific artists and, therefore, should not be copied. Partly a database to protect intellectual work and their creator, partly a source of inspiration to help future bubble artists be innovative.

I won't list an effect or tool here unless I'm 100% sure of its inventor, which is also why some effects aren't listed here. I hope the list will be updated over time and that I can find a new source or receive information from other artists at any time. Furthermore, the list is not intended to be in order of importance or chronological order.

 The "TRISTRING"

Kalvin Klundt

 

I open this section with one of the most popular bubble tools, still used by countless artists today.

On the left side, you can see what could be considered the first real image of the tool in action.

In the words of Kalvin, who sent me the image, here's the description:

 

Day of discovery 12/1986. Although I had come up with the idea for the tristring a month earlier after visiting the Exploratorium in San Francisco, this was the day I put one together and tried it. This was not the 1st bubble but close to it. Friends where gathered at my studio in Key West for an after work drink, I didn't say a word about it. I just pulled it out and made this bubble.

In some ways this event made history...

Kalvin patented the instrument, which was then produced by an international toy company and sold worldwide under the name "Dip Stix."

You can see an image below. The patent later expired, and the instrument was suddenly copied worldwide, and is still produced today by various toy companies. I think it's fair, at least superficially, to link it to its original inventor.

Below is a Dip Stix commercial from the late 1980s:

 

Kalvin also produced other interesting and original bubble toys; his second creation was "The Foamie," which was later sold by other toy companies.

You can see an image of the advertisement on the left.

 

Interestingly, a year ago I was experimenting with a way to produce foam not "in bulk," but more like a net, and I came up with an object almost identical to Kalvin's product... reinventing the wheel...

 

Kalvin shared the design for this device with me, which I'll post below in a small image gallery, so if anyone is interested in producing it for their own use, they can find the details here.

 

Here the description of another bubble tool that he created on the '90 (picture on the side):

 

"In 1992 I designed this toy project to combine art and bubbles. I later licensed the concept to Crayola and it was on the market in 95- 98. The original concept used a device that blew a bubble then released two different colors of a watercolor paint onto its surface. The paint flowed down the valleys in the surface of the bubble blending the two colors and the user then pressed the bubble onto a sheet of paper. Crayola opted to use a simpler design because of their core customers age."

 

Indeed creative.

 

One more product created and also sold by toys company it is The bubble Twister.

 

This  is a very useful tool and also for this Kalvin wrote me giving full permission to reproduce it for personal use (this have to be considered a very kind proposal from an inventor !)

 

 

 


You can see the Bubble Twister in action here on the left

 


here a close details of the Bubble Twister, you can see that it may be very easy to reproduce.

Enjoy this gift and experiment with it. Recently I have seen a picture of it connected to a small battery operated drill; this addition make it very funny to watch and, perhaps, much easier to perform.

 SOON COMING MORE....