How to Make Fireworks

This is a great project if you are new to homemade fireworks shells or are cursed with a small space in which to shoot your experiments. Thanks to John Shupe for providing this well written and clear article. This is...

This is the final installment in a series of articles chronicling Ned Gorski's efforts to produce two traditional 8", Tiger-Willow, paper ball shells, including handmade stars, burst powder, spolette time fuse, lift powder and quickmatch, all at a weekend pyro...

A fine article on making pillbox stars was written by Lee Partin, late of Homosassa Springs, Florida for the best club newsletter in the US, the FirstFire. She and the club have consented to its reprinting here. Thanks especially to...

If you have ever seen a really high quality color-changing spherical artillery shell, you may have noticed that the firework stars all seem to change colors at exactly the same time. The firework stars can actually look as if they...

Star Plates -- Why use them to makefireworks stars? A star plate is a fast and easy way to make a lot of fireworks stars. This project builds on the skills and techniques which were introduced in Chapter 6 of...

Making your own sky rockets is an extremely satisfying project for both beginner and advanced firework makers. Getting your sky rockets to fly straight is an essential part of the process, and wooden sky rocket sticks are the simplest and...

By Ned Gorski Why reinforce plastic ball shells? My first fireworks shells were made with ping-pong-balls as the shell casings. Many folks started out using 35mm film-canisters to make shells, or with strapping-tape-reinforced 1.75-inch plastic "festival ball shells." Shells have...

If you want to make whistle rockets or whistle and strobe rocket combinations, the most tedious part of the whole process is making the whistle mix. Dan McMurray has provided an excellent article on how you can cut the time...

My old pal Bob Winokur has been doing some pyro-sleuthing and came up with a small stash of two pyro chemicals which are largely unobtanium now: Realgar and Orpiment, both arsenic compounds. He was able to supply us with a...

Glitter is That Silver Twinkly Part at the Bottom of These Brocade Shells Photo Courtesy of Tom Handel This is a gold brocade shell. Glitter is hard to depict in slow-shutter-speed fireworks photographs, but you can get an idea of...

Introduction Now and then on the pyro discussion lists someone will bring up the subject of zinc stars. Usually several folks will chime in with, "Oh, man, those stars are some of my favorites, so subtle and beautiful." In Chapter...

  Weighing out specific amounts of chemicals, and screening them together to form a composition, are the most basic firework making procedures. But, as with any skill required when making your own fireworks, these fundamental jobs can be done well...