Julian Cox's hobby of blowing bubbles might seem bizarre but has a very special meaning. John Gibb talks to him about how his fascination has developed.
It's a hard job finding the perfect bubble.
Over the past four years Julian Cox has spent quite a bit of time in that increasingly absorbing, if occasionally frustrating, quest.
Mr Cox is the president of CF Otago, a cystic fibrosis advocacy and support group. The national body, CF New Zealand, recently adopted bubbles as its national symbol, replacing its previous emblem, a motif involving red roses.
CF is an inherited disorder that affects several organs in the body, especially the lungs and pancreas, by clogging them with thick, sticky mucus. In the lungs this can cause shortness of breath, a chronic cough and repeated infections.
''Bubbles are an excellent emblem for CF because it does make you think about the effort involved in blowing a bubble- it seems easy to most people,'' Mr Cox says.
He said CF was a complex condition that could not ''easily be conveyed in a sound bite'' but using bubbles was a good way to highlight one main aspect of the disease. CF and bubbles are particularly meaningful for Mr Cox because his daughter, Rachael Cox (14), has CF.
Back in October, dozens of big, glistening bubbles floated in the sunshine, and many pedestrians stopped to watch, during a CF awareness-raising day involving a bubbles display near the Dunedin Railway Station. Rachael said the event had raised awareness of CF.
She enjoyed generally good health herself but some people with CF were so severely affected they could not blow any bubbles any more, she said.
Mr Cox points out that his own fascination with bubbles is linked to two quite different quests.
One of these is simple enough - he is always seeking ''better, larger, longer-lived bubbles''.
And he has become adept with bubble-making gear.
To make many of his bubbles, he uses a ''tri-string wand''- two sticks, more than a metre long, that are linked by a string that forms a triangle shape and are dipped in a bucket of dishwashing detergent.
And he adds a not-so-secret ingredient: guar, a vegetable gum that is used as a food thickener, including in some milk products and yoghurt. And Mr Cox admits his sheer love for bubble-making is ''a somewhat quixotic quest''.
''Every bubble is going to burst eventually and the bigger the bubble, the more chance it has of hitting an object, having an insect fly into it or simply being blown apart.''
So, along with a bit of the bubbler's skill, the quality of the bubble mix and the wand material and design, many things outside of our control come into play.
''So sometimes a bubble session is wonderful with big, beautiful bubbles and other days are disappointing for me personally, even though any audience that gathers seems to be impressed.''
Mr Cox's other, more serious and ''perhaps more important'', goal is to see if the popular bubble-making activities that take place in Dunedin each year can be developed into ''a national bubbles day for cystic fibrosis''.
''I'd like to see bubbles and cystic fibrosis as recognisable as daffodils and cancer.''
Like the Cancer Society's national Daffodil Day, it would be an awareness and money-raising event.
He envisages a CF-linked day with bubbles events around the country including bubble-making, a bubble photography competition on Facebook, a bubble-off with celebrities or political leaders and bubble games for the children.
''I see the day summed up in my head as a stream of bubbles coming from lots of different locations in New Zealand when viewed on Google Maps.''
He has not yet developed a business plan for the event. One key to its success is to develop ''a reliable, low-cost, bubbles formula that's safe and accessible throughout the country''.
''I'm sure it would generate great publicity and the reaction you see on the faces of passers-by shows it definitely has that feel-good factor.
''It was a matter of finding the time to transform ''a part-time hobby into something much more serious''.
The only public event he is involved in regularly is the yearly bubbles day for CF Awareness Week. He now realises that making bubbles, particularly big ones, is ''quite addictive''.
''Sometimes you'll get an extra-big one, or sometimes you get one that's particularly long-lived.''
And other times the film breaks before it leaves the string, so you're always wanting to do 'just one more' because the next one is sure to be big and long-lived.
''And of course there are the wonderful shapes and colours. Bubbles are simply beautiful.
''My biggest, closed off, bubble is probably around 10m long and up to 2m across,'' he recalls.
He also finds it easy to blow bubbles inside a larger bubble, and once managed to create 17 smaller bubbles inside a large one.
Bubble-making is popular around the world for two main reasons, he believes. Almost everyone makes bubbles as a child but these are generally small, round bubbles.
''Everyone has that moment when they first see giant bubbles where they go 'No way! I didn't know bubbles came that big'.
''And they then want to know how to make those particularly big ones.
Bubble-makers, or ''bubblers'', seem to be a sharing bunch, happy to let others know about at least some of their secrets.
Looking up Soap Bubble Wiki on the internet reveals a wealth of information from bubble recipes to wand-making.
And why has there been an international upsurge in interest in bubble-making?
Pictures on the internet of some amazingly big, long soap bubbles, often on beaches, are driving at least some of the appeal. Mr Cox points to some amazing bubble images on YouTube, particularly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i-zYdOPG2k.
''It's hard not to be inspired by that.''
For Mr Cox,much of the fascination lies in ''the reaction of people, including myself, to large bubbles''.
''It is a bit mind-blowing to see something that fragile, so big.
''It's hard not to try to reach out and touch it just to confirm it's real, yet you know in doing so, that will end the magic.''
Bubble facts
• A New Zealander, Alan McKay, of Wellington, is credited with making the longest bubble n- 32m long, created in a Karori park in 1996.
• The largest free-floating soap bubble created had a volume of 20.65cu m and was made by an American, Megan Colby Parker, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 2013.
• Dishwashing detergent is a key component of bubble-making mixtures, with sometimes a few exotic touches added, including veterinary and surgical lubricants.
• Dunedin bubble-making enthusiast Julian Cox uses a tri-string wand, two sticks linked by a string that forms a triangle shape, to create his bubbles.
• A gold mine of information about making soap bubbles can be found at Soap bubble wiki:http://soapbubble.wikia.com/ Information about records is at: bubbleblowers.com/records.html
• Memorable YouTube video of huge bubble on a beach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i-zYdOPG2k
Source: Julian Cox
