I just recently had found myself standing at my own two feet, moved into my first rented apartment. But not many stuff to decorate. Aha! When you are just starting the possibilities are endless.
I wanted something to have as secondary decorative lighting for my livingroom/bedroom. I was scrolling pinterest and fell on these beauties.
Wow, was the first word that came from seeing these great lights. But they were greatly over budget for me. Plus they were quite big so alongside shipping, it was a no go. But I couldn't get them out of my mind.
I'm going on an adventureThe decision was made to create my own light, if I could. Although it was not smart to go all in and create the final version. A prototype on the other hand, now thats good to start with. I created a small frame and cut some plexiglass. The plexiglass was then covered from one side with putty to create paterned mountains and grass. Many materials were tested for creating the textured parts and most of them failed, even in the final version (more on that later).
The material was choosen and painted, unfortunately the grass part did not survive. You see I have roughly cut everything and the grassy pard did not fit in the frame. I tried cutting it with the jigsaw, and the vibrations destroyde the putty I used.
No crying over brocken eggs though, the consept was prooven. The edge lightning looked pretty good.
I decided to prettify this small prototype and keep it.
The frame - A ring is bornI wanted this piece to have a wooden frame, I looked online to buy a round mirrod with wooden frame, but I was not satisfied that the wood grain was following a straight line. I wanted this to be a statement to all wall mounted Lights. The I had the crazyest idea. Woodbending could accomplish what I was looking for. I researched the matter for many hours and decided that the best aproach for someone that has little to no woodworking experience is to use veneer with a form, and some friends of course.
After making a small piece of the ring as trial, I was convinced that it was possible. So I created part of the form using inexpensive MDF and some screws. The second half of the form could be a tightening strap.
And so we set out with my friends to make the two halves of The Ring. It came out great and the proccess was not hard. Although I have to admit that my furnituremaker friend's experience was crucial to this part.
Long storry short, after many long weeks of waiting the wood to stay into form. We fixed the two semicricles toghether to create the frame.
Many thanks to my helpfull and brave friend.
I was not able to source wallnut veneer, so we used coloring for the apearance.
Look how cool the wood follows the curvature now! Who has the best round frame now huh!?
Acrylic troublesNext step was to cut the plexiglass into shape for the frame. That part was easy, but the putty used for the first iteration was to brittle for such big pieces. The textured mountains were constantly breaking and this was extremely frustrating. Having come so far into the project just to fail now.
After some testing rounds with new materials, I used a special glue that was very flexible and had good adhesion with the acrylic.
I cut an old light blue T-shirt for the initial prototype and liked how the fabric looked so I decided to copy it to the final piece.
Next up was painting the mountains and grass. After watching tutorials on youtube on painting mountains, I felt sure enough I could copy it onto my piece.
Unfortunately I don't have photos of the electronics. I've designed a 3D printed enclosure and used a simple led power supply alongside an ESP8266 to control the led strip. The led strip is cold / warm style. I fixed the enclosure with woodscrews and assembled everything toghether. And voilà.







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