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It worked pretty well. By their flight path and bouyancy, it was determined that they must have had a mix of helium and plain air.

Eric didn't want to try the hydrogen.

I kept at it, bubbling the helium up through the bubble solution.

Without really changing what I was doing, just letting the helium flow freely, it began to work.

They were great! They went right up!

It was neat to watch, even before liftoff, a little mountain of bubbles would form, pulling skyward, then a clump of perhaps 40 bubbles would pull free and float up and away.

Little bubbles looked heavy and biggest ones broke open. There is a minimum size for a single helium bubble to rise, and I'm guessing it is the size of a BB. (5 mm).

The workhorse lifters were bubbles which were the size of eggs.

Once airborne, they stayed intact and floated slowly up and away.

Rising piles would linger, stuck to the mass below. Sometimes we severed a chunk from the mass with a sharp exhale along the base of the bubbles.

We also tried foul language.

Bubbles flying away.

I would have prefered a huge cluster of bubbles, or a continuous string of bubbles rising like cartoon smoke from a smokestack.

I think this is a fun effect which has some great potential.

If I tried it again, I'd try using a smaller tub, perhaps a single cup, so that the bubbles wouldn't have such a wide liquid base to stick to.