Something beautiful to behold, and one of my all-time favorite things to make. The video below shows the dance of color you will see with this kaleidoscope. Watch and be mesmerized.
The outside body of the kaleidoscope is made with art glass. It is assembled using the Tiffany style method which includes applying thin strips of copper foil to the art glass edges, and melting solder to join the pieces together. I added a bit of decorative solder here and there. The scope body houses three equal lengths of optical-grade front-surface mirror, the quality of which is required for excellent clarity and distinct facets of color.
I use only lead-free solder for safe handling. Brass wire loops are soldered onto one end of the scope which will hold an acrylic oil wand. Oil wands are filled with tiny colorful beads, stars, and half moons, wands are held in place with rubber o-rings (see fourth photo). When the scope is held horizontally, with the oil wand vertical, the beads and sparkles in the oil wand trickle down. When you look through the other end of the scope, you are treated with a dazzling display of kaleidoscopic color ~ over and over!
Remove the wand, and the scope becomes a "teleidoscope". Whatever one is viewing becomes the object of beauty. Holiday lights, garden flowers, a stroll through the forest ~ truly anything becomes more beautiful when viewed through a teleidoscope. The last photo shows what a Hot Lips flower shrub in my backyard looks like through a teleidoscope. Imagine what a Christmas tree would look like!
You will receive one kaleidoscope as shown, as well as both the swirly yellow and the turquoise oil-and-glitter-filled wands (and rubber o-rings to hold them in place) shown in photos.
- Color: Body is creamy off-white art glass.
- One side is adorned with two slumped glass marble "gems" - one turquoise, one opalescent peachy-yellow. Disclaimer: there is a tiny flaw/chip on the surface or the turquoise gem.
- Kaleidoscope body is 6-1/4" long, 1-1/4" tall.
- The yellow and turquoise wands are 6-1/4" long.
- Front-surface optical mirror inside provides the multi-faceted kaleidoscopic effects.
- I use only lead-free solder for safe handling.
- Not a toy! It's all glass. It can break if handled roughly.
Additional info - there are many combinations of mirror lengths, widths, and angles - all of which determine what patterns one sees when viewing through the cylinder body of the scope. I primarily make a three-mirror system, usually in an "isosceles" triangle configuration, which results in more facets of color patterns.
I began making kaleidoscopes nearly thirty years ago. They were my signature product and something I thoroughly enjoyed creating. I'm guessing I've made around 300-400 through the years.
What is a kaleidoscope? As quoted from a 1935 edition of The Columbia Encyclopedia,
"...an instrument consisting of a long cylindrical tube one end of which contains many small particles of varicolored glass confined between two discs of clear glass, but free to move between these discs when the tube is rotated, and also two mirrors set at an angle of 60º. The other end is fitted with an eyepiece through which an observer discerns many varied, but always symmetrical, patterns due to reflection by the mirrors of the forms into which the glass chances to fall.
Its invention is commonly attributed to Sir David Brewster."
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