Galaxy Sensory Tube, or Giant Oil and Water desk toy

I subscribe to Pinterest, and they can be annoying with their notifications.
But they also give me lots of inspiration.

As a kid some of my favorite toys were batons filled with glittery liquid.
They are relaxing and mesmerizing to watch.

Today they call them "Sensory Tubes" and are supposed to help kids with ADHD, etc.

You can fill them with wet or dry things,
glitter, seashells, Legos, just about anything.

I had most of the ingredients to DIY one.
Food coloring and glycerin.

This glycerine was from Whole Foods and was expensive.
I bought it maybe two years ago.
I had to think why I bought it, I think it was to re-hydrate dried out brush markers.

I also have tons of glitter.
A lifetime of glitter.

Michael's sells containers especially for this "Sensory Tubes" craft!

But you can buy alkaline drinking water in a similar container, for less.

I didn't have "mineral oil" so I went to WalMart.

Brand name baby oil is like $3.50 a container, kinda expensive! You can also use cooking oil, but it has a tint. Next time I'll go to a Dollar stpre...
Luckily I didn't use as much oil as I thought I'd need.

I also bought floral water beads or "orbee's."

I've done a lot of crafts but don't remember buying these before.
Somehow they were extremely familiar...

I looked this project up before starting.
One thing people added were cotton or pom-poms.

These are much cheaper at WalMart.


Here I'm starting to add stuff to a bottle.

I wanted a "galaxy" effect so I thought these bouncy ball party favors would work.
Interestingly, the clear bouncy balls floated while the swirly ones sank.
I ended up removing the swirly balls.

There are several tutorials.
Some use only water, for instance.
I fiddled around with the mixture.

I was able to transfer everything to another tube and start over.
Here's some results:

They don't "run" or move like a Lava Lamp or a desk toy when I flip them over,

but plenty of cool and mesmerizing textures!

I think there's a way to make a "storm" in a bottle, too..