Color-effect, bonfire fun?

[pytotek]

Hey, all!

I'm newer to the pyro chemistry world and I've recently dreamt up the idea of having some fun at the next bonfire I attend. 

 

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of creating something that works like a giant version of those color changing packets you can buy at the store.  Perhaps one that contains both a fuel and a chem for different colored flames would be nice to create a sort of colored flare.

[Arthur]

Good colour formulations are mixes! While it sounds like fun, a display by "someone else" (friend or business) is on their insurance so maybe you shouldn't take pyrotechnic articles or substances uninvited. A good fireworks party has enough entertainment and enough fireworks at a safe distance for the size of audiece

[AustralianPyromaniac]

A question like this depends a lot on where you live and what chemicals you have access to. If you want to make a composition that will burn on its own producing coloured light, that's pretty hard. If you just want it to burn in the fire producing coloured light, I think you should look into making the chloride compounds CuCl2, SrCl2 and BaCl2. You can throw these onto the fire and they will produce very intense colours, better and cheaper than the pouches, but they are not used in the coloured fire pouches I think mainly because they are very hydrocopic. 

You can make these compounds by reacting hydrochloric acid from the hardware store with SrCO3, BaCO3 and CuCO3 which you can buy from a pottery store. 

[MadMat]

If you simply want to color the flames of a bon fire, don't forget about boric acid! It will give a definite green to the flames. As far as other colors, the chemicals get a bit more involved, but here are some ideas: lithium compounds produce a pink color, copper compounds produce green through blue, calcium compounds produce an orange, strontium compounds produce a brilliant red, sodium compunds (yes, even plain old table salt; sodium chloride) produce yellow. There are a bunch more you could probably find doing a google search. Just to let you know though, just because these chemical produce nice colors in a bonfire's flames, they aren't necessarily useful in fireworks. In fact, only strontium and copper can be used in both. Also, be careful with some of the chemicals which contain toxic metals, you don't want your party goers to be breathin in those kind of fumes (at least not in any large amounts).