Kaleidoscopes

[defn]

So in my many adventures, I have never come across a reasonable adults kaleidoscope. All the ones I've ever found had child cartoons ect prints on them, and were cheaply made.

Having a few extra dollars in the pocket, A kaleidoscope is something I would like to purchase. However I would like to have a high quality one.
By high quality I mean: ceramic, acrylic, wood, brass finishing. And to have a reasonable refraction area to produce "psychedelic kaleidoscopic visuals."

Wasn't sure if this was psychedelic discussion or not, but I would want the kaleidoscope primarily for use under psychedelics.
Has anyone purchased one that they would recommend? Ebay, amazon have lots of varying options.

Thanks for your time.

 

[sekio]

Make one yourself, it shouldn't be that hard. And then you have the saitsfaction of having a home-made built to order kaleidoscope. They're not exactly common household items.

All you need is a tube or casing, some mirrors, some high-strength glue, confetti or sparkles or what-have-you, and patience.

You'll probably find that people who sell "good quality" kaleidoscopes put an insane markup on them.

 

[System7]

oh man now i want one too

 

[sekio]

http://www.optics.arizona.edu/academics/kaleidoscopehowtomakeakaleidoscope.htm

This looks like a good guide.

 

[lastest]

No sourcing questions on bluelight!

 

[defn]

Thanks for the responses, it appears in the coming week Ill be attempting to make a kaleidoscope. This seems to make a fairly cool/unique gifting present for anyone who is in that kind of community.

Thanks for the speedy response sekio!

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

The Japanese have a long and robust tradition of crafting kaleidoscopes. Like, really nice stuff, expect basic prices to be in the hundreds of dollars and up.

Get to google searching. For a non-retail site with examples, check this out.

 

[thoughtsUnThought]

Damn kaleidoscopes are the shit
Glad this discussion surfaced!

I played with one that was for children recently and it was awesome, never considered there being professional made top notch ones, I guess there a master of every trade though . awesomeness

 

[brän1]

*snip* Thanks for helping the people who saw this while it was up.
~Never

 

[Transform]

I think teleidoscopes are WAY cooler. They use external input to create images like the one below.

 

[Termino]

I've seen really sweet kaleidoscopes at a Renaissance Fair. Pricey but very cool.

 

[Unelmaporsas]

Quick googling found a wide variety of kaleidoscopes (tip: check Amazon and Ebay) starting from like five bucks. But what got me really interested were kaleidoscope projectors. Anyone have any idea where to get a good one? There is one called Mangekyo projector but it's sold out everywhere. I want those patterns on my walls! Even when I'm not under the influence of exotic psychedelics, lol.

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

This isn't the home shopping channel guys, I had let a link or two stay up 'cause in the art thread people have linked to their sites that sold art and it was okayed, but we're not gonna let all this specific sourcing stay, so, I do away with it (do some research guys, email a kaleidoscope-enthusiast site for advice on where to buy, I don't care, let's just not talk about it here).

But please, feel free to continue discussing kaleidoscopes (and related somesuchascopes). Places that just show cool kaleidoscopes, or that show how to make them yourself are okay to link.