Since discovering that Calcium chloride can be used to raise the specific gravity of water enough to make glitter lamps I've been doing a lot of experimentation. This lamp is one where I have replaced the original E14 base with a GU10 base so I can use the cheap 3W LED lamps available on ebay. These have a small electronic power supply and three 1W LEDs and the results in a glitter lamp are stunning. The three sharp points of light create a mega sparking effect that more than makes up for the slower fluid movement at the lower temperature. Despite being only 3W the LED lamps result in a much brighter lamp than the traditional 30W tungsten lamps. Running costs will be just a couple of pence/cents a day for 24 hour operation.
The glitter I used is sold by a theatrical supply company called Rosco and is silver 1/64" hexagonal-cut polyester glitter. I chose it because it is one of my favourite glitters due to its consistency and quality. Polyester has a very high specific gravity so the fluid needs to have a matching specific gravity of about 1.39 and this requires a LOT of Calcium chloride.
The calcium chloride I used was the hexahydrate version and was sold as food-grade. It's important that it's pure as any impurities may create cloudiness. For a 500ml vial/bottle I used about one pound of the calcium chloride with roughly 150ml of water. The heat from the LEDs is low, so the glitter has to be at near neutral buoyancy in the liquid. This involves fine tuning it so that if the glitter settles at the bottom you add more calcium chloride, but if it settles at the top you add a few drops more water. The fine tuning can be done to the level of a single drip of water. After any adjustment give the bottle a shake and let it sit for a while and see if the glitter is moving to the top or bottom. Ideally it should be trying to stay in neutral suspension, but a very slight drift upwards is preferred over a downward drift since glitter at the bottom of the vial will obstruct the lightsource.
The video can't really do the effect justice. It's a shimmering green (or whatever colour of lamp you choose) that makes the vial sparkle brightly and projects a rippling light effect around the room.
The glitter I used is sold by a theatrical supply company called Rosco and is silver 1/64" hexagonal-cut polyester glitter. I chose it because it is one of my favourite glitters due to its consistency and quality. Polyester has a very high specific gravity so the fluid needs to have a matching specific gravity of about 1.39 and this requires a LOT of Calcium chloride.
The calcium chloride I used was the hexahydrate version and was sold as food-grade. It's important that it's pure as any impurities may create cloudiness. For a 500ml vial/bottle I used about one pound of the calcium chloride with roughly 150ml of water. The heat from the LEDs is low, so the glitter has to be at near neutral buoyancy in the liquid. This involves fine tuning it so that if the glitter settles at the bottom you add more calcium chloride, but if it settles at the top you add a few drops more water. The fine tuning can be done to the level of a single drip of water. After any adjustment give the bottle a shake and let it sit for a while and see if the glitter is moving to the top or bottom. Ideally it should be trying to stay in neutral suspension, but a very slight drift upwards is preferred over a downward drift since glitter at the bottom of the vial will obstruct the lightsource.
The video can't really do the effect justice. It's a shimmering green (or whatever colour of lamp you choose) that makes the vial sparkle brightly and projects a rippling light effect around the room.
Starting off, just want to say that this is an amazing lil guide! I am actually using this to attempt to make a glitter globe myself.
I've been making DIY lava lamps for awhile, and I wanted to see if I could make a glitter globe. I legit, could not find much on the matter until I stumbled across you. I ordered some calcium chloride and some glitter with the hopes of me being able to replicate this. I'm still waiting for the glitter to arrive.
If you have any tips/tricks I would appreciate it!
However, I do have a question/recommendation.
So, as I mentioned, I make DIY Lava Lamps. As you can imagine, the method of making them has changed over the years (and it still varies depending on what kind of "flow" you are looking for). One of the first methods that individuals used to make lava lamps were Epson/canning salt with distilled water as the main ingredients. There was a slight issue with that, however, as that the salt would corrode the metal coil inside of the lamp (which is used to spread the heat eventually, and break/mix up the wax while it flowed). The salt was replaced with an alternative – propylene glycol to prevent corroding. This leads into my question – have you tried PG over calcium chloride to prevent any corrosion to the glitter? I'm genuinely curious to know if that is a better option. I think it's fairly cost effective too, being that you can get a whole gallon for $25, and it's already in liquid form.
Sorry for the long winded comment, but thank you!
Hi, could you make 2 of these lamps for me, please let me buy them from you please they are beautiful 😍
This is a dope lamp. Revisit these. Show us how!
Clive – You gave a very good description of the ingredients, but as far as the container goes, you only mentioned that it is 500 ml. But is it glass, plastic or what, and what shape bottom.
Where can i find one and how do i describe it ?
Thanks.
A friend of mine asked me to fix the LED's in the changing color one, it looks like the red LEDs are weak or not enough to light it. I got the bottom plate off but all that is there is wires going the the next section. So to fix it I need to get the glass bottle removed from the base top part. Is it screwed in, or glued? It is the Vortex, made by LAVA Lite LLC
It's amazing, can you please make a full tutorial for that? There are some confusion abt Ratio between water and Calcium chloride, and how to fit lamp on bottle.
Does the liquid you make feel oily to the touch? I am asking because I have a lamp I received as a free gift that is losing liquid as it was not sealed properly. The liquid that drips out feels slightly oily like a very light oil. It is in a clear plastic container that tapers up near the top and has a top that appears like it might be glued on but when tipped up it leaks drips and over time it has lost a lot of it. So I was searching to see if there is a liquid that I can use to top it up, and this video came up.
This one plugs into USB, and think it doesn't heat up but maybe just designed for a person to tip it up to move the glitter around. I am not sure that I can removed the lid at the top without breaking it, as it is probably glued, but might try. Otherwise maybe I can re-use the led module contained at the bottom – it has three different colours (red, green, blue) and cycles from one to the next while leaving the previous one on – fades one while fading up the next one over a few seconds.
Hello from Argentina, your website instructions and this video are great for me, congratulations. You are giving me the solution to repair my old original Glitter lamp from the 60s, which I have, and has already lost glitter. My doubts are: which is better to use: calcium chloride hexahydrate, or calcium nitrate? Finally: would the holographic silver glitter powder for nails serve as a shine? Thanks
That looks fantastic! Can you make a video of you making a lamp please?
Where can i buy one link plz
hello dear friend I found by chance your post on the glitter lamps and I found it very interesting. can I ask you some other questions? Thanks for the attention .
best way to make glitter suspend
Glue. Clear tacky glue. You can make the glitter permanently suspend or take hours to settle all the way. Ive been making sensory bottles and put one under a light and it worked
Don't bother, I tried it out. Bought two packages of calsium chloride and nothing, even close to what this video claimed happened. Fraud say I.
Is this a glass or plastic container/bottle? Playing with lamp ideas and wondered if this would work with a glass bottle with light underneath it?
can you share the link to the items and materials that you used to create this lamp. thanks
I have a question, and I understand if you don’t know the answer, but I’ve been trying to find a way to keep glitter suspended in resin, and I know there’s little hacks to doing it, like waiting for the resin get thicker and then adding the glitter, but I’m planning on casting a sword with resin to make it look like water, obviously I’ll add a blue tint to it, but I also wanted to add glitter, so I kind of have to add it in the resin before I pour it in the mold. Do you think Calcium Chloride would work? Or could that possibly be dangerous to mix? (I’d be using an epoxy resin).
Watching this lamp with the glitter slowly moving plus Clive's voice = instant relaxation. This video needs to be shown to people with anger management issues. Also, Clive needs to start doing audio book narration on a part time basis.
Looks cool.
Have you tried RBG in one lamp yet?