Giant Snow Globe

By Sean Michael Ragan
Category: Fun & Games, Kids & Family
Time Required: 3 hours
Difficulty: Moderate

This project began when I, myself, realized that deep need–that every man knows sooner or later in his life–which can only be satisfied by a say-hello-to-my-little-friend snow globe. I scoured the tubes looking for a suitable Tony Montana figurine, and though I found several, the only one featuring suitable full-auto-enraged-coke-frenzy action was MezCo Toys‘ Tony Montana (“The Fall” version), which is 7″ tall. That’s way too big for even the largest empty snow globe I could find. (It turns out, incidentally, that sourcing empty snow globes online is a bit of a trick. There are a couple of crappy kits on Amazon, and a predictable selection of snow-globe photo frames, but for the real stuff you have to go to snowdomes.com.)

So I was forced to consider other options. Then one day at the hardware store I looked at a shelf full of glass lamp globes and the light bulb went on. And although the round, perfectly clear variety is a bit harder to find, I was able to run one down on eBay without spending too much time on it. The globe I used is made of glass, 8″ in diameter, and features a 3.5″ opening, which are ideal dimensions for the MezCo Tony Montana. Turns out the same globe is available in clear acrylic, and frankly that would be a better choice because of the reduced weight and danger of breakage.

Next I had to figure out how to seal the opening. It wasn’t long before I remembered seeing, in some lab that I worked in at some point, a really giant black rubber stopper. It took a bit of research, but it turns out the biggest rubber stopper manufactured, which is #15, fits very well into a 3.5″ globe opening. These stoppers are commonly available in natural (i.e. off-white) and black rubber. I found a black #15 rubber stopper on eBay for not too much, and was able to figure out a clever way to seal it tightly into the neck of the globe without having to use adhesive, sealant, or tape.

The final problem was the snow itself. Turns out the composition of snow globe snow is a closely guarded trade secret, and although you can buy small packets of it as part of commercial snow globe kits, I couldn’t find anyone selling it in bulk. Glitter can be used for this purpose, but it was totally inappropriate to serve as snow in the context of my vignette. A craft site put me on to the idea of using crushed eggshells, but it took some experimentation to figure out how to treat, clean, and grind them to make good snow.

Steps

Step #1: Prepare snow

The membrane on the interior surface of the eggshells must be removed before they will grind well.
Soak the shells overnight in straight bleach to remove the membrane, then put them aside to dry.
Grind the shells, not too finely, with a mortar and pestle, then pour them into a jar.
Cover the ground shells with several inches of water, put the lid on the jar, and shake it. The water will turn milky white, at first. Pour it off, and repeat the process until the water remains clear after shaking. This washes any remaining proteinaceous matter off the ground shells.
Pour the water off one final time, then put the powder aside to dry.
You could apply mild heat to accelerate drying, but be careful not to burn the shells.

Conclusion

If you have problems with air bubbles appearing around the stopper as the globe cools, don't fret. Warm up another pot of water, big enough to submerge the entire globe, until it is about the same temperature as the globe. Then remove the globe stopper, and very gently lower the open globe into the pot of warm water, slowly allowing the empty space at its neck to fill from the surrounding fluid. This should be done carefully to avoid agitating the water excessively, and hence causing more glycerine than is necessary to diffuse out of the globe. Once all the bubbles are gone, reinsert the stopper as tightly as possible, and leave the globe in the pot to cool overnight.

Finally, I would really like to add some scale C-notes to the water in my globe to complete the effect, but I haven't been able to come up with any clever way to produce waterproof model currency in an appropriate size. Any suggestions you may have will be welcome in the comments.

One Response to Giant Snow Globe

Sean Michael Ragan on December 19th, 2011 at 12:00 am said:

Thanks Darcy! Not a bad idea, thought I think they would be on the thick side. Might be worth an experiment or two. Think I still have some around here from my Shrink Dink Gaming Minis project…

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