Brainstorming
I want to make kind of a minimal plush night light, something that can stand on a shelf or on a night table.
Ram/Aries Plush Light
When I started to sketch out the ram I wanted the horns to glow but as I was thinking more about it I wanted the wool to glow kind of like in the movie “Tangled”. Then I thought about the Aries in the star signs and they are kind of magical and I can imagine that their wool would glow.
I want the face and feet to be made out of leather and the body to be made out of wool or some kind of furry material. I want the horns to be made out of some kind of stiff material like a white leathery hard material but I think it would be kind of cool to 3d print the horns.
Angler Fish Plush Light
I really enjoyed sketching these fish plush lights. I googled what an angler fish would look like and they’re kind of ugly and scary looking. I did not want the light to be scary-looking so I made the fish more cartoonish. I also wanted the fish to look tired because it is a night light. I want to make the light bulb on the fish glow but I thought it would maybe be cool to have his lower jaw glow as well. I drew a few of them to explore the color combinations.
I want the body to be made out of some leather/vinyl but the jaw to be made out of more of a sheer material. I would probably use a wire to hold the fish part that holds the light in place or to keep it steady.
Rhino Plush Light
I wanted to go for kind of a minimal rhino that had simple shapes. I think the most cool thing about rhinos are their horns so I wanted them to glow.
I want the the whole body to be made out of leather/vinyl and the horns to be made out of a more sheer material.
Prototyping
This is the prototype of the plush I sewed. Sewing this plush taught me how to do a backstitch and how to close the plush with a ladder stitch. I also started with this pattern and it kind of changed drastically because I wanted it to have arms and feet.
Then I have the prototype of the LED light. This taught me how to make successful connections and how to secure them.
Before I soldered the connections, I put plastic tubes on the wires and shortened the wire on the capacitor. I made this connection by connecting the longer wire of the LED light (the positive) to the capacitor via soldering. Then I soldered the the negative side of the LED light to the black wire of the battery pack and the other side of the capacitor to the red wire. When I finished the connections I heated the plastic tubes with a heat gun to make them shrink and stabilize the connections.
Fabric Choices and Materials
I really wanted to do the ram so I headed to the fabric store to see if my LED light would shine through the fabric.
The LED light surprisingly shined through the fur fabric. I think that I will need a few LED lights so the ram’s full body shines.
I picked out a vinyl material for the head and feet.
I want to 3d print the horns so I will probably use Rhino to design the horns and print them out at the VFL Lab.
Other Materials
I will need fiber fill to fill the ram, however, I want the ram to be a bit heavy so I might need to look into other filling materials such as microbeads. I might use microbeads to only fill the ram’s feet to keep it steady.
I am not sure if I should add eyes to the ram because I want to keep it minimalistic however, I am going to look into adding really small eyes. I don’t want it to become too cartoonish or childish.
Other basic materials I need are needles, white thread, black, and scissors.
Story and Target User
I decided to pick the ram because it kind of holds sentimental value to me. The ram kind of reminds me of home back in Iceland. I do not own sheep but they can be seen in various locations and I used to visit my uncle’s farm a lot when I was a child.
I want to make this night light for adults. I want this to be something that looks good in your home, is aesthetic, and compliments your house. I also want to think of the target user as someone who just move to the city from a small town. This is supposed to be an item that reminds them of home <3