Fantastic Fireworks | Video

Cliff Naylor | 7/4/2012

A small shed on a farm in northwest North Dakota is the laboratory where amazing illuminations are made the old fashioned way. Bruce Rosten builds all his fireworks by hand. He started designing and building his own shells as a hobby after he took over the family farm in the early 80s.

Once his skills as a pyrotechnician were developed, he began putting on Fourth of July fireworks shows on his farm.

"Thousands of people came. The roads were plugged, the town streets were plugged full of cars and people, it was an amazing thing that happened," he said.

An autoimmune disease prevents him from putting on any more public fireworks displays, but he still loves to create custom rockets. He now lights them off during the annual Pyrotechnics Guild International competition.

"I`ve won more trophies than I have room for."

Rosten says he enjoys building fireworks for public enjoyment not individual glory.

"When I see a shell go up and do what I envision in my mind what it would do, it brings a great deal of satisfaction."

All the rockets and shells he makes are meticulously designed on paper. Rosten has a special license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to handle high powered explosives.

One rocket he`s working on is an Italian canister shell that will weigh 15 pounds when all the explosives and black powder are packed together and bound up.

"This shell will fly through the air for five seconds, then it will explode throwing shells and inserts out."

It takes a couple of days to complete a mortar shell masterpiece, which when lit, will explode and sparkle for only about 15 seconds. Rosten says all the hours he spends making custom fireworks are worth every single moment of enjoyment they produce.

The fireworks Rosten is building will be fired off at this years PGI "Fire in the Sky" competition this August in LaPorte, Indiana.

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