Channeling Light

 

This is made with fiber optics and ground blue glass. I would kill for this in my kitchen. But I started thinking I could make the same with wood. *you should check out the entire photostream, this is amazing.

 

I took a scrap board and dremel carved some loopy images into it. Then with painted in using mica'd watercolors. I had to recarve a few times because it wasn't deep enough for the extra stuff I wanted to add.

 

At first I only did a few because I thought it would work out right away. By the end I filled the board up completely.

 

 

I initially wanted just the watercolors and blue glass but after almost cutting the everloving crap out of my hands I thought I'd try without. I can pound glass into smaller pieces but haven't figured out how to not cut myself or embed it into my skin. So lets put that on hold. Why not use fiber optics? I played with them for a project last summer and still have plenty.

 

I glued the filament into the chanel with white glue. It poked out the other side through a hole at the end of the swirl.

 

 

All dry and you can kind of see the line it made. This was not easy.

 

 

 

After the glue dried in which case I should have tested the light I instead opted to cover the image with resin and let it dry. I then tested with a flashlight. Not so good, I think I need a different kind of wire, el maybe.

 

This one turned out better, a kink in the wire produced light at that spot and the end. This is still not what I had in mind. I tried kinking the wire and lighting it but that didn't work.  I need to go back to the fiber optic shop and see what they can do for me.

Playing with binding...

I'm still trying to decide how to show off the painted papers in the books I've been making. I want to do them all longstitch but coptic looks nicer. I did this one whilst watching a terrible horror movie.

More painted paper

I like it better with more paint and sometimes I just want to throw colors all over a big piece of paper.

This life is a mess....

I'm making a lot of books lately and I like to add a few sheets of hand painted paper. I start with a big sheet of paper, from a roll, and I lay it out and spray it with water so the edges don't curl. Depending on my mood I will mist it all really good and then drip, drop and paint acrylics all over it. Then I hit it with water again. I want a good bleed. 

Sometimes the colors pool all over the paper so I might lift up one end and let it run down to the other end.

  All done and drying:

This takes a few hours to dry completely. When done I mist with water and let dry under weight to flatten it all out then cut into nice signature sized sections and use it for the inside and outside pages of each.

 

The mess goes from horrific to beautiful by the end.

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.