Pixie dust / Corolla stars

[skysparkler]

On 2024-07-03 at 06:50, Zumber said:

Mes tikrai dirbame su ta pačia žvaigžde, turinčia gražų anglies srovių efektą, o po to gražiai mirgančia auksine uodega.

Šiam vyrukui sekasi, bet mes vis dar dirbame.

https://youtube.com/shorts/So4PnyWZK7Y?si=G_x8Jx2jbkU48Bme

I analize many videos of this effect and see difference in same effect. on this video it one intrestig thing then stars finish to burn fist finished charcoal tail after 0.3 second later finished glittering tail. in my opinion there is maried stars, gliter with charcoal.

[Zumber]

1 hour ago, skysparkler said:

I analize many videos of this effect and see difference in same effect. on this video it one intrestig thing then stars finish to burn fist finished charcoal tail after 0.3 second later finished glittering tail. in my opinion there is maried stars, gliter with charcoal.

No its not married stars.

I have purchased same shell and opened stars and it was rolled stars not married.

[skysparkler]

2 hours ago, Zumber said:

No its not married stars.

I have purchased same shell and opened stars and it was rolled stars not married.

if you talk about commercial of course. But homemade you can make however you want ,no one never know that this is maried. and it is not an exception that this shell from Indian guy can be with non-real corolla stars. Such an effect or similarity can be obtained by combining two compositions glitter and charcoal. take win 35 or win 14 stick together with C8 and you have someting lookslike. som etime before i tested win 20 with c8 and obtain somethik like matrix stars (big gold flashes behind tail and orange pointed tail from C8 in front. it work perfect this techniqu work for wave efects when color star a slow burn low energy mix

[Zumber]

It is fine for one or two shells and it works too but we are looking for say for 100 shells (20 to 25 kg stars) for festival and we also prefer rolled stars as it won't take much time like preparing pumped star and pasting it to make married comet/star. As I don't have multiple pumped star making tools at one time plus don't have a press. I am hobbiest not professional.

Further I need to coat it over red or green stars.

This is very trending and popular effect now here.

Anyway thank you.

[skysparkler]

19 hours ago, Zumber said:

It is fine for one or two shells and it works too but we are looking for say for 100 shells (20 to 25 kg stars)

We are discussing about the effect itself. if you have any composition that works roughly without any difficulty when rolling or pressing. It would not matter how it is made, I will be happy to discuss about it.  as soon as an idea comes to mind, I go to the workshop and mix the mixture for testing, but it hasn't worked yet.

Talk about how much and how to make it. Need a new discussion or at least a working composition. just  one or the other cannot produce, does not mean that it cannot be used

Edited November 10, 2024 by skysparkler

[skysparkler]

Thiis is ti hidride grains burn on te paper

[skysparkler]

One more nice corolla efect video

[skysparkler]

On 11/9/2024 at 3:09 PM, Zumber said:

It is fine for one or two shells and it works too but we are looking for say for 100 shells (20 to 25 kg stars) for festival

Further I need to coat it over red or green stars.

 

 

47 Potassium nitrate
33 carbon (pine)
6 Antimony trisulphide
5 Aluminum (400 mesh, 12 micron, spherical)
5 Sulphur
5 Dextrin

Think this is good point start research from here. its actually Firefly comp. I spent little time on video researches and comparisons, this one most close in visual, to pixie dust effect in my opinion. I found only one video with this composition, But have tested this comp. few days ago, unfortunately something go wrong. I use barbeque charcoal and 325 mesh atomized alu instead of pine charcoal and 400 mesh sperical alu. https://youtu.be/RvVLl_sE5zM?si=TFrVuKL_5HvQwjpq this one i find on YT. https://youtu.be/dNT16zxm1Yo this my test slowmo

Edited November 16, 2024 by skysparkler

[Norsepyro]

The stars in that shell look indeed very interesting, but I have my doubts about it being that formula you posted. I have never been able to get such sharp flashes from atomised aluminium in a charcoal star myself, but I might be wrong of course. The video looks more like a charcoal/MgAl effect like the pirotex glitter formula.

I do however find the search for new glittering tailed effects very interesting, so please keep posting videos and ideas🙂

Did you try the Ti hydride in charcoal stars, skysparkler? 

[skysparkler]

3 hours ago, Norsepyro said:

 

Did you try the Ti hydride in charcoal stars, skysparkler? 

Yes I do one test but not work like pixie just like charcoal streamer w  ti or feti

Firefly is probably sensitive composition to right ingridiens and moisture. I think here need add bit more Al and antimony trisulf or Al and sulfur. My test showed that idea of this composition work like it should be. Just needs  a little corection of proportions. And finde edge betwen glitter and flitter efects.

 

 

[Norsepyro]

On 11/23/2024 at 8:00 PM, skysparkler said:

Yes I do one test but not work like pixie just like charcoal streamer w  ti or feti

Firefly is probably sensitive composition to right ingridiens and moisture. I think here need add bit more Al and antimony trisulf or Al and sulfur. My test showed that idea of this composition work like it should be. Just needs  a little corection of proportions. And finde edge betwen glitter and flitter efects.

 

 

Thanks for letting us know about the effect of Ti hydride. 

I now tried the firefly composition in your post to this thread, using homemade pine charcoal and 400 mesh atomized aluminium. All ingredients were sieved and made as homogenous mix, then moistened with +16% water and pumped. The effect I got was just a fast burning charcoal flitter effect with a fine spray of slightly brighter sparks than charcoal alone, maybe a couple more delayed sparks but no strong glittering. I believe that to get a glittery effect from a formula like this, the star needs to burn slower so the fire dust grains become larger and can give a secondary glittery effect after a delay. This is at least how the classic firefly effect is achieved using flake aluminium. Adding +6% Barium sulfate and binding with wheat paste helps a lot to achieve this with the Majdali firefly formula in my experience. Maybe this should be tried here too. 

[skysparkler]

On 11/25/2024 at 11:04 PM, Norsepyro said:

This is at least how the classic firefly effect is achieved using flake aluminium. Adding +6% Barium sulfate and binding with wheat paste helps a lot to achieve this with the Majdali firefly formula in my experience.

Do you have videos of this effect ? Firefly nice effect i saw few videos with long delay, but not tried this comp. never before.

I have test today flitter with 325 atomizet alu and flitter alu, turn into glitter efect with bright charcoal tail and log delay when add +to mix 5-ironoxid 1-boric 1-phenolic resin.

flashes are silver long delayed  not very sharp like pixie dust. Tomorow will try in shell, then share composition here.

 aluminium what i use various from 0,3 to 1 mm flakes from PG 

Edited November 27, 2024 by skysparkler

[Norsepyro]

3 hours ago, skysparkler said:

Do you have videos of this effect ? Firefly nice effect i saw few videos with long delay, but not tried this comp. never before.

I have test today flitter with 325 atomizet alu and flitter alu, turn into glitter efect with bright charcoal tail and log delay when add +to mix 5-ironoxid 1-boric 1-phenolic resin.

flashes are silver long delayed  not very sharp like pixie dust. Tomorow will try in shell, then share composition here.

 aluminium what i use various from 0,3 to 1 mm flakes from PG 

I have no video myself yet but hopefully after new year 🙂

This is the formula I used:

KNO3: 49

Charcoal airfloat: 29

Charcial 80 mesh: 11

Sulfur: 6

Aluminium flake 18-30 mesh: 5

Sgrs: 5

Barium sulfate: 6

Bind with wheat paste for pumped or cut stars. The author states that wheat paste should be fresh and warm to dissolve as much kno3 as possible but I got good effect with cold paste. 

The original steve majdali formula uses no sgrs/dextrin, only wheat paste and no barium sulfate. I found these modifications to give a superior effect. Charcoal I used is barbeque, likely mostly beech which is common in europe. Works great for sparks. 

I found this video which should give some idea of what firefly looks like. Not sure which formula this is but the effect looks like my own stars made from above formula, only the aluminum is probably larger in the linked video:

 

[skysparkler]

20 hours ago, Norsepyro said:

This is the formula I used:

KNO3: 49

Charcoal airfloat: 29

Charcial 80 mesh: 11

Sulfur: 6

Aluminium flake 18-30 mesh: 5

Sgrs: 5

Barium sulfate: 6

Ok thanks will try this soon. Do you mill separated ingridients then mix or mill base mix without metals, 80 mesh charcoal and B.sulfate? And how many minits?

[Norsepyro]

2 hours ago, skysparkler said:

Ok thanks will try this soon. Do you mill separated ingridients then mix or mill base mix without metals, 80 mesh charcoal and B.sulfate? And how many minits?

No milling is necessary as long as your ingredients are fine powdered, I only use screens as with other stars. One pass through 40 mesh and 2-3 passes through 20 mesh. 

[Zumber]

8 hours ago, skysparkler said:

Ok thanks will try this soon. Do you mill separated ingridients then mix or mill base mix without metals, 80 mesh charcoal and B.sulfate? And how many minits?

You can mill KNO3 , Fine charcoal, and Sulphur together for an hour and add metals coarse charcoal later through screening method.

[skysparkler]

 

Have tested some composition with diferent modification, but test show that atomized al not work properly. 325 patricles to small and allmost burn out like flitter by coloring the tail to bright gold. Flake Al make biger flashes but more slugish, all most not affected the base charcoal tail. Probably composition must have biger particles clean without dust of metal compound, which would not have any effect on the charcoal tail. In my opinion it firs rule for this composition.

[Norsepyro]

I think these stars looked nice, even if the effect might not be what you were looking for. Especially the first formula has good tail length. Looks like asymmetric flashes almost like winokur 39.

[Norsepyro]

I came across this video where the author states it is a firefly/charcoal formula with granular aluminium added. It seems to give a fine grained glitter effect. 

 

No formula or particle size of the metal is mentioned. Maybe a firefly star with granular/spherical aluminium size 30-100 mesh is worth trying. I have some curls/wool from drilling aluminium which I might try to grind into this size. 🙂

[skysparkler]

On 12/3/2024 at 8:58 PM, Norsepyro said:

No formula or particle size of the metal is mentioned. Maybe a firefly star with granular/spherical aluminium size 30-100 mesh is worth trying. I have some curls/wool from drilling aluminium which I might try to grind into this size. 🙂

Looks promisin need do the test. i think here granulated bright flake aluminium

Few days before have one more test brocade comp modified slightly. with feti70  60-80 mesh. Have video here.i thin here need finer powder to get sharper and denser flashes, biger feti particles not lightinup i think. will try between 100-150 mesh.

Edited December 4, 2024 by skysparkler

[Edwin]

Sorry, forgot I had this video from Pirotex. It's relatively new (early 2023).
 

The composition from the description is as follows:

Shimmering Chrysanthemum:

KNO3 - 48%

Coal - 36%

S - 8%

Dextrin - 8%

+5% NaHCO3

+10% Magnalium (Stated 200-300 mircrons in comments)


still looks like a charcoal comp w/ metal

Edited December 11, 2024 by Edwin

[Zumber]

1 hour ago, Edwin said:

Sorry, forgot I had this video from Pirotex. It's relatively new (early 2023).
 

The composition from the description is as follows:

Shimmering Chrysanthemum:

KNO3 - 48%

Coal - 36%

S - 8%

Dextrin - 8%

+5% NaHCO3

+10% Magnalium (Stated 200-300 mircrons in comments)


still looks like a charcoal comp w/ metal

Thats nice shimmering effect..!!

[Edwin]

So I guess that replacing NaNO3 with KNO3 along with some additives in pirotex glitter still produces a similar effect?

[Pirotex]

I have not directly compared the effects with the addition of magnalium and real Corolla from factory products. But from my observations I can say that the compositions with magnalium have a characteristic rustle and noise when burning with a fine-grained shine, and the Corolla effect burns without an obvious trail, while the flashes are silent (similar to glitter D1). The true formula is probably easy to make, I do not think that it uses a composition that requires adjustment and careful selection of ingredients, since this is instability in production. But I can be wrong

[Norsepyro]

When watching youtube videos of the vulcan pixie shells it seems like the effect varies a bit. I believe this is a sort of microstar, either a CuO/MgAl crackling type without much noise, or a white strobe type. At least in one particular video of this shell the flashes were obviously strobing with several blinks from one piece of a star fragment. 

As for the corolla type it might indeed be Titanium. Take a look at this shell:

 

The formula is in the video discription. 

Only instead of 44 parts charcoal the author states he used 11 parts lampblack and the rest 33 parts of mixed charcoals. I can indeed verify that this composition flashes with about 60-120mesh sponge titanium. It looks almost like a firefly effect with long lasting floating sparks which flicker white. Very interesting effect!