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Lloyd’s Fairy-Fountain composition. (This is the fast-burning variation.) Granulate the comp, dry, and ram in a 1/2″ tube, plugged at the bottom, with no nozzle. Burns for about 5 seconds per inch. Lloyd’s comments: “Ahh… my favorite effect, and safe enough to hold in your hand! I used the ‘fairy fountain’ to simulate a Roman Candle in the movie “Things That Hang From Trees”. I had to have something safe enough for talent to hand-hold, and which showed up well on (real) film. Although it’s not a ‘traditional look’ for a candle, it adds just enough ‘punch’ to make it film very nicely. They are charming, quiet, and safe effects that are easily made. Make yourself up your favorite slow-burning high-charcoal candle comp. Use lots of fairly fine charcoal so as to give it a delicate and short-lived tail. Add to that the merest pinch of fine titanium (I used -80 mesh flake, and although I’m not in a place to look it up, probably around 2g/lb[guessin’]), so that only a few percent of the sparks are silver rather than gold. Adjust to taste, but they lose that ‘fairy’ look when the white sparks become too dense. The appearance of them is magical (Lloyd)
