The “bubble guy” was demonstrating his craft recently one early evening on Pacific Beach’s boardwalk off Hornblend Street.
\nEric Elam, the “sultan of soap,”\u00a0has been making huge soap bubbles for about four years entertaining crowds along PB’s boardwalk. People inevitably show up to witness the magic of Elam’s amazing bubbles.
\nUsing two fishing poles, Elam’s crafted a giant wand with attached loop that he dips into his pre-made, 5-gallon plastic bucket. The wind does the rest, blowing through the loop generating a long, cylindrical column of bubbles about 12 feet long, which break apart before drifting, dancing and dazzling the crowd.
\nWhat is giant bubble making for Elam? Work? A hobby? Entertainment?
\n“I’m not paid to do this,” said the low-key, soft-spoken Elam, who talked about how he got started.
\n“A friend of mine was making bubbles, and I thought I could make them bigger,” he said. “I got the recipe online.”
\nWhen asked what goes into making a big bubble, Elam replied, “Not a lot \u2014 dishwashing liquid, water and a bucket.”
\nWhat inspired Elam to seek the “ultimate” soap bubble?
\nHesitating a moment, he replied that the urge first struck him to try bubble making on steroids following a break-up in a personal relationship.
\n“People are loving it,” he explained. “I love people watching.”
\nAnd watch they did, young, the old, passersby.
\n“Some have said my bubbles can be seen six blocks from here at the Pacific Beach Library,” said Elam, who gives regular bubble demonstrations at 6 p.m. at the end of Hornblend Street at the boardwalk on weekdays, and on Diamond Street on Sundays. He continues to put smiles on the faces of kids of all ages. And he doesn’t charge for his services.
\nEver wonder how bubbles are formed?
\nA\u00a0bubble\u00a0is just air wrapped in soap film. Soap film is\u00a0made\u00a0from soap and water (or other liquid). The outside and inside surfaces of a\u00a0bubble\u00a0consist of soap molecules. A thin layer of water lies between the two layers of soap molecules, sort of like a water sandwich with soap molecules for bread.
\nInvented by\u00a0Taiwanese\u00a0bubble solution expert\u00a0Jackie Lin,\u00a0the top-secret solution contains a polymer that allows bubbles to resist evaporation.
\nThe history of soap bubbles is as old as that of soap. But bubbles are no longer simply soap and water.
\nFind out more about Elam’s amazing bubbles on his Facebook page. How To Make Soap Bubbles: 1. Pour warm water in the bowl.
\n2. Mix the soap in the water.
\n3. Add some glycerin\/sugar\/corn syrup in it. …\u00a0
\n4. Stir the solution until the contents are mixed completely.
\n5. Add any shampoo of choice to the solution. …\u00a0
\n6. Pour into a storage container with a lid.
\n7. Blow bubbles.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The “bubble guy” was demonstrating his craft recently one early evening on Pacific Beach’s boardwalk off Hornblend Street. Eric Elam, the “sultan of soap,”\u00a0has been making huge soap bubbles for about four years entertaining crowds along PB’s boardwalk. People inevitably show up to witness the magic of Elam’s amazing bubbles. Using two fishing poles, Elam’s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":267918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Pacific Beach\u2019s \u2018sultan of soap\u2019 entertains boardwalk visitors","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}