Glitter Crisis!!!

I was going to write today about something completely different, a post I've been working on for quite awhile, years even.....but I got distracted....by glitter.

Now, my being distracted by shiny things is nothing new at all.  However, at this point in time, I'm in the midst of a glitter crisis.  (First world problem, I know).

Anyway, here's the deal.  I have a bunch of snowglobes in my shop.  They take days to complete, literally.  The real problem is that I haven't perfected them yet.  The first few turned out beautiful, gorgeous, and lovely,  then one turned a funny colour.  I wrote about that before, and what it essentially means is that they all take FAR longer now to finish, as I have to be extra careful.  One recently leaked during shipping, and the penguin came loose.  I was horrified by this since I shake the snot out of them to test them.  I researched more adhesives, tested, and came up with one that is miles above the one I'm currently using.  Add a couple more days to the snowglobe process. 

All of this is inconsequential compared to the glitter crisis.  It's by far my biggest challenge so far.

If you love snow globes, like I do, you know that the most important part about a good snowglobe is the glitter "hang time".  Snowglobe show should hang for awhile before it gracefully floats to the bottom.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had stumbled on the PERFECT snowglobe snow:

Here it is, the elusive perfect snowglobe glitter.  I had no idea at the time what sort of problem this would cause.  When I ran out of glitter, I went back and bought a HUGE tub of glitter, assuming that one glitter is as good as another.  Turns out that's REALLY wrong.  I didn't float gracefully AT ALL!  It just plunked itself down on the bottom of the glass and stayed there.  "Ok, more glycerine" I thought.  Glycerine usually helps the glitter be more floaty.  Nope, no dice.  How tragic.  You can't have a snowglobe where the glitter doesn't float, it's just completely pointless!
This meant another trip to the craft store.  The problem, clearly was that I'd bought a different brand of glitter.  I'll just buy the same brand.  So I did.  Here's the original glitter, on the right, with the new tube on the left.  Same brand "Sulyn Industries".

Same brand, slightly different label, but should be the same glitter right???

WRONG! 

It's completely different!
How can that be, why doesn't my glitter float?!? OH the FRUSTRATION!

Here's the original glitter, what's left of it.

Here's the new glitter.  Deceptively similar.


Need a closer look?

Here ya go, the original on the right, with the new glitter on the left.  See the difference?  Such a tiny little difference in glitter makes a HUGE difference to my little world of snowglobes.





This glitter problem spawned a widescale search for glitter, the perfect glitter.  I pulled out an old container of glitter, still the same problem.  I tried microbeads in two different sizes, but they were too heavy to float. 

I e-mailed the original glitter company.   I can only imagine why they didn't e-mail me back: "This crazy woman is complaining about the shape of the glitter she bought!"

I started to pull my hair out.




Today, THIS happened:

Yep, that's me in the midst of testing 7 different kinds of glitter against each other, the result of 4 different trips to the craft store, and hours of pacing through the craft store and shaking tiny vials of glitter while I scrutinize them.  Dragging each home,  mixing it with varying amounts of water and glycerine, and shaking the snot out of them.  It turns out that champagne glasses give you room to shake them without pouring glitter on your floor......oh the things I never wanted to know.  I still have no perfect glitter, but here are my findings, in case you were curious.  From right to left in the above picture:

Martha Stewart's iridescent glitter.  It mostly looks like shiny water from a distance.  It clumps together when you add glycerine.

Martha Stewart's tinsel glitter.  Interesting floating going on here, but snow just doesn't look like that.  I'm not sure I can get over it.

Martha Stewart's coarse crystal glitter.  By far the best contender, great float time, but looks like cloudy water when shaken.  Bonus, no clumping

Tulip's iridescent fabric glitter....well hey, at least it's waterproof.

The IMPOSTER glitter!

Martha Stewarts white glitter.

Tub o' useless clumpy glitter.

Here's the lineup again in case you missed it.

Countless others were discounted in the store, on the spot.  I guess I'm destined to roam Michael's on an endless quest to find the perfect glitter.

Listen, if you see it, I'm begging you to mail me some.