At least in the US there are no regulations specifically stopping you from amateur chemistry.

The challenges tend to be:

- it’s hard (not impossible) to procure some chemicals because most suppliers will only sell to businesses

- there are regulations around safety hazards like storage of flammable liquid in residential area (these are good regulations, I’d rather my neighbor isn’t storing 20 gals of ether for example)

- there are regulations around manufacturing explosives (even in tiny quantities)

But that said, there is nothing stopping someone from jumping through the needed hoops. Incorporate a business (not very expensive), get a license from the ATF (mostly time to do paperwork and stuff - like buying a machine gun), follow fire regulations.

The other option is to just procure chemicals through other products. Naphtha is basically a mixture of hexanes. You can buy a lot of nitrate salts used for food or gardening. It’s not hard to procure metals.

where do you get cobalt, strontium, and rubidium

you said 'The other option is to just procure chemicals through other products. Naphtha is basically a mixture of hexanes. You can buy a lot of nitrate salts used for food or gardening. It’s not hard to procure metals.' but this americanelements link doesn't seem to be a case of 'procure chemicals through other products' but rather 'buy from a place that lists things by cas number and probably only sells to corporations'

Try eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/125395009075 etc

that also doesn't look like 'procure chemicals through other products', that's a listing for 10 grams of, supposedly, pure strontium

Yes, in the very restricted setting of schools, where the concept of "fun" is usually not included, but rather avoided at all cost.

I recall many of the described experiments from high school chemistry labs. That was in the 1980s though. My kids did the "silver mirror" at least in recent years.

Maybe, but while my high school chemistry teacher okayed me making a small batch of nitroglycerin, the principal very much did not.