The GamiBloom light was inspired by origami folding techniques which I translated into felt to take advantage of the transparency, and slight rigidity of the material. Here are shots of it fully open, midway and fully closed:
Take a peak for some process shots:
Box pieces cut on the table saw to form a precise octagon
pieces were lid out on a piece of tape for glueing
in this way tape helps the box seems stay in place
a ribbon clamp was used to hold the parts in place while gluing
file for laser cutting the pattern in felt
Felt pieces were laser cut for precision
here we see the process of sewing the pattern together
my “production line” of LED’s being soldered
LEDs ready to be laid out
I used a piece of plexi glass to hold the LEDs in place
I had a lot of fun with the RGB LED this week. Instead of using a pingpong ball to diffuse it I used a flexible plastic material and was able to film the subtle differences in color through my phone’s camera by placing the plastic directly on the lens of the camera. I played some Amadou & Mariam in the background for rhythm:
In the second exercise for this week it was hard to get super creative, but I was able to change the rate of fade. Here is a faster fade than the original with the delay at 5:
When I was younger, we would regularly have thanksgiving at my grandmother’s house in central Arkansas. It’s a place where my extended family would gather from around the country. Aunts and uncles and cousins would gather in this small house and tell stories and reminisce about Thanksgivings long before those I was present at. There were several stories I heard year after year. One of those stories was a warning against trying to steal from Grandma Roses’ kitchen the night before Thanksgiving.
There’s not much to this story, as the house was small and the moment was quick. It happened at one of these gatherings before I was born, when my older cousins were in grade school. My cousin wanted a midnight snack and couldn’t resist sneaking into the kitchen. So, he waited until the lights were out and everything was still before quietly (and probably proud of his sneakiness) he slipped into the kitchen. But it wasn’t so much slipping as tripping. My grandmother had tied up a line across the kitchen doorway. It was looped up through every pot and pan on the counter and stove. They came hurtling down to the floor! Of course, everyone was woken and my cousin was caught amidst the commotion. And the story was probably told every year the family was together for thanksgiving after that.
The Knight Light is a reminder that the pots and pans guard the kitchen at night. Before Thanksgiving, it’s a warning! In a quiet home the rest of the year, it’s good company and a soft glow to welcome you to the kitchen for the occasional midnight craving.
How it’s made:
The light itself comes from 10 white LEDs just over 3V each, wired in series of 2. Then those series were wired in parallel. The battery pack is only a 6V pack for two coin-size batteries, so the lifetime is shorter.
I packaged them in this nifty fake lightbulb so they could stay concentrated in the same location in the body of the light. This also took away some of the distance the light has to travel through the diffusing material. I used these soft plastic pellets that are for filling things like bean bags and Beanie Babies. They create a nice even diffusion and give a weight to the light so it plops on the surface an a cute kind of way.
The main body was made of white sheer muslin to aid in letting out that light. Then the pots and pans are made of a rayon fabric to get a nice sheen that pairs interestingly with the glow in the dark.
Here’s the on/off difference as seen by an iPhone!
The thing I enjoyed the most here was playing with the diffusion of the light, and the way the light sits in the object. And going back to it, I would just focus on the core of this little thing and make it bigger. It’s possible that it could get more out of using actual pots and pans than plush ones. That was definitely the biggest making challenge, thinking of ways to make pots and pans fit this little guy and still have proper proportions. In the end, there aren’t many that lend themselves to fabric construction that also then lend themselves to use as armor.
Hello, Everybody! My test piece is still in progress. I’ve been adding flowers slowly over the course of the week. And there’s Blinky to the right! She and I are good friends, now.
Thanks for reading!
Bonus Track:
I got really into #FreeArtFriday this past weekend. Made a lot of pillows… You can see where they were put out on insta. @william.clay
