My BFA thesis show just took place at IU in Bloomington this past Friday. I had eight illuminated assemblages on display - some of which employed the use of edge-lit acrylic, some of which had acrylic lights projecting downward, and one which used cold-cathode fluorescent lights. This post may not be appropriate on a modding forum (it was actually originally intended for my blog), but some of the pieces were partly inspired by SMILODON's edge-lit acrylic door http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=142491&highlight=edge-lit+door ... so hopefully some of you will find some value in this post! I wish I had taken more pictures while working on each of the pieces. It would be nice to have a step by step photo gallery with technical info to submit to instructables or makezine or something... Especially since I had to figure a lot of this stuff out on my own. But I decided to at least explain some of the technical issues with my pieces here so I'd have something to refer to people if they decide to work with any of the lighting setups I used. This is what my studio looked like during the few days leading up to my thesis... plus a few other people crammed in there: This is what it looked like in the actual gallery space: When I originally planned to have eight pieces in the gallery space, all with their own internal lighting elements and unique complications, I never realized how much work that actually meant. And while spending night after night working on album art with Matt and Ginger, it started to hit me how soon everything was coming up, and how I knew I wouldn't be able to follow through with my plans alone. And really, I had no idea how to do most of the stuff I was attempting. I knew next to nothing about electrical wiring or voltage or resistance, and in general, I tend to mess things up a lot when I'm stressed and working alone. I knew what I wanted to achieve with each piece and I had the basic ideas down, it just took some extra minds to help figure everything out and help with the decision-making. The first piece I finished in early February was probably the most simple in terms of design and lighting. The art was straight-forward, the cutting was pretty simple too. I knew next to nothing about electrical wiring at this point, so I used a small bulb rated for 120 V for the lamp bulb. I haven't had any issues with it yet, but I understand why the dude at the electrical supply store was trying to talk me into using a 12V bulb setup. If anyone were to reach behind the lamp and touch the bulb though, they'd get fried, not to mention the risk of fire inherent in this piece. But whatever.... Three of the pieces in the opening use a form of edge-lit acrylic ... the idea being that when you illuminate the edge of plexiglass, any engraved area (or finger-prints, scratches, spots, ink) will light up with an even glow. Kinda like the signs they have at restaurants. It can get pretty gaudy if its overused, which is why I didn't over-do it. I used the CNC router with an engraving bit to etch the vector drawings I did in RHINO onto the plexiglass. Theoretically I could have also just used a Dremel, but the CNC router ended up being a huge time saver. I ended up buying thin, flexible LED strips for $10 each from superbrightleds.com. They were all wired up for 12 volts and came in different colors for different applications. These three pieces used edge-lit acrylic: I also decided I wanted to make a super-thin, internally-lit light box. Brian got me clued into CCFL lights (cold-cathode fluorescent lighting), which are the type of lights used in flat screen LED monitors and scanners (computer nerds also use them to light up their gaming computer boxes). They're super-thin and cost only $7 per set, and they are generally well-known for their brightness and low power-consumption. I ended up using a set of two 15" lights and a set of two 6" lights on the inside of the boxes. I think the depth of the area that contained the lights was only 2.5 to 3", if that. I couldn't really get a good image of this box in the gallery though: I also tried to figure out how to put tiny spot lights in one of my pieces. I realized the cheapest option would be to cut up mini-mag lights and hardwire them up to a 3V power supply, but this whole idea turned into a fiasco. I got the first set to work right, but they crapped out the first day of the exhibition. I think the main issue is that those mini-mag lights are meant to be used the way they were designed for ... two AA batteries on the inside of the casing holding everything tightly in place. Once you take those out and try hard-wiring onto the leads, you end up losing tiny parts and burning through the plastic pieces, thus making it nearly impossible to get a good ground or positive connection, thus shorting the lights out. I have plans, though, to make a 'fake battery' which would essentially hold everything together, and offer a solid POSITIVE lead to solder onto. As the casing for the light acts as the ground, I could also just tap a screw hole into the casing and get a solid GROUND wire hooked up. I'll hold off on this for a little while though... Two other boxes were from a series that I finished last year.... They originally didn't have any lights in them, but I modified them by routering out a space in the bottom for white LED strips to sit in and project light upward. I didn't get any pictures of these, but they turned out well - the lower area and figures were cast with a mysterious glow. LEDs, man... they're where it's at.
It's nice to be an inspiration for someone. Must be the first time. That's some really nice work. I especially love the first one and the one with the two people in the rain. Now you really made me want to try something like that myself.
Not a computer mod, but please don't let anyone move it. The work is awesome. There are enough ideas here to inspire many of us. I was thinking of the MagLight bulbs the other day when I was under the desk in my cube at work. So much light from 2 AA batteries. I have the red anodized one with me always. Let us know how your presentation was received. John
Its your first piece (the typewriter one) that stands out for me. Even if it is dangerous!! Well done
Thanks a lot! I've been interested in illustration for some years now, but I have only been exploring 3-dimensional work for the past year. I know for sure I won't be leaving design/illustration behind though.
A quick question for Harpy Hello Harpy, Really nice work there man. If you get time - i'd appreciate your help. I work in the local community college and we're trying to spice up our engineering dept with a nice sign. I was thinking of making a edge lit sign "Welcome to AACC Engineering" using acrylic and our CNC mill. I see where you got your LEDS from but im looking at this Acrylite Endlighten sheets but its serious expensive. Whatever you used, looks great expecially in a bright enviroment. So could you recommend whatever acrylic you used... Keep up the good work. Thanks, -Tim
I don't know what "Acrylite Endlighten" is, but standard clear sheets of acrylic glass works very well. A 3-5mm sheet can easily conduct light for a couple of meters, and probably even more (Although you will have to work very hard fo find sheets longer than two meters). Standard acrylic shouldn't be too expensive. It's not as cheap as "real" glass, but should be affordable.
Hi Smilodon, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Thank you for your advice. Yeah i figured out that standard acrylic will work fine. If you get time , i'd appreciate your 'edge lit wisdom' again. Shown in the image is a prototype of our eng. sign. As you can see the results are not great. This is a small sign and we want to make it larger and have it working in ambient light levels. The acrylic im using is .25 inch thick (a little over 5mm) I used a CNC ball end mill to create the lettering (depth .125"). Just from messing around i've found the highest intensity was when we scratched the OTHER side of the acrylic - this scratch is around the center of the acrylic and you can see its the strongest - we might have to mirror the letters back to front and view them thru the acrylic. Here is the link of the LEDS im using and comparing the specs - it looks like the intensity of the LEDS seems the same as what Harpy is using?? http://www.unique-leds.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=1892 Can you offer me any advice or can you see what im doing wrong here?? Thanks for your time - i appreciate any help. - Tim Its worth mentioning that the camera is picking up the blue very well - with my eyes its not nearly as intense.
