The light is finished!

To attach the balloon to the light stand I used the plastic from the original light, cut down to a small circle. I need this thing to be sturdy so with epoxy I glued rare earth magnets to the inside of the base and a hot glue from that to the stand. It took a lot of trial and error to get that one figured out.  I drilled 4 holes and wired the balloon ropes (chains with embroidery floss) to the base and then added more hot glue.

Now onto the basket. That was hard since it was around the pole of the light, anything I had that was basket shaped would have to be cut to fit around and then re-attached. I tried pill bottles and wire candle holders but I couldn't find anything just right. So I used scrap leather.

For some reason I decided the basket needed to be easy to remove so I didn't use glue to connect then ends together, I used snaps. I need pictures of that but it worked out really well. 

 

And all finished! The led bulb still made it a bit warm inside so I stabbed some holes into the fabric to vent it. The balloon is stuck sturdy enough to the base for when my dumb cat takes a swipe at it, and is easily removable to change the bulb which is supposed to last longer than I'll be alive.

Hot Air Balloon Light

I follow a few crafty blogs and one had a post about steampunk hot air balloons and I loved the idea. Why not use it for a light? I went to Tai Pan Trading looking for something that would work, birdcages and baskets and I found a wire pear. What it's supposed to be used for I have no idea. 

 

 What would Macgyver do? Bust out that Dremmel and grind off the leaf. Much later after pounding my finger with a hammer I decided that the bottom would not be ground, hammered or cut off. Plan B: a smaller balloon with just the bottom half and grind off the hinge. Success!

I spray painted it silver metallic and wiped on some copper.

Now I add some beads and other embellishments.

 

I added some tea-stained fabric with glue and upholstery thread which stood out enough that I went around and painted over it with copper.

More stuff added, ribbons and beads.

The inside is a mess of thread.

The light test: A regular 40 watt bulb and a cfl bulb were too hot to use so I got an led bulb at Costco. I also have dropped it onto my wood floor at least twice and it didn't break, it just bounced.

It's not done yet, I'm working on the basket and ropes that tie it to the balloon. It's been snowy lately which makes it hard to spray paint outside.

Martha Stewart Probably Did This Better

I'm going to skip the a.d.d. process of searching for some kind of apothecary cabinet for crafty storage then frustrated I couldn't find what I wanted for cheap actually designing my own and getting continually snowed on all month so no woodworking outside. My design is the shit though, I'm going to make it when it warms up. I have until then to learn about creating and following a woodworking plan though, that should be fun.

I went to Ikea to see what their desk storage looked like and found some wire drawers I will be spray painting soonish (seriously, doing that while snowing sucks). Yay for all of my crap, well, some of it. But there's a lot of little parts and pieces that won't stay put in a big basket drawer. I've been saving the cardboard from cereal boxes I get from Costco so that I can do more embossed stuff, it's the right thickness and well hey, it's the perfect size. And I get 2 small storage compartments per box.

 I found it was easier to measure and cut flat so I opened up the bottom.

The height of the drawer is 5" so I measured 4.5" from the bottoms.

You gotta cut out the cereal box tops!

Now I have 2 boxes that need bottoms to be glued back together, you figure this part out because, seriously...

 

All done! Now cover with scrapbook paper, or not, you gotta class this shite up people. We can't look like the Clampets until after the wedding reception.

 I covered the inside of the long one because I put two together for knitting needles and didn't want to see how much overlap I had from not paying attention to the measuring.

You can do these in every size and configuration you need and organize your crap. When looking around online for ideas I saw a lot of ones covered in fabric or made of heavy canvas, but neither were cheap and allowed me to not have to drive anywhere to get supplies.