Luminous Mushroom Night Light

Step 4 Charge and admire

Because we were using batteries, I was able to admire my handiwork right away.  You can see me holding the bread board behind the lamp.  I didn't want to permanently attach anything until I got my solar panel.

I would recommend spraying with a clear sealant after everything is assembled; it's good to protect the wood.  I haven't done this yet.  I considered painting the white fungus on the wood with glow in the dark paint, but I haven't decided whether or not I will.

My iphone doesn't do a very good job of picking up the glowing mushrooms after the LEDs are off.  They do glow pretty well, and the stripes of glow clay and translucent clay are more visible in person.

Thanks for looking!  I hope you try your own.

Comments

[siskk]

Love the idea...where in the heck do you get the led lights and all the know how to hook up wires??? I don't have a tech savy hubby but I think I could figure it out if I had some direction.

[db'alexander]

Well done, I love the combination of wood, plastic and electronics. I am usually more verbose, but I am hungry and somewhat amazed at how good this looks.

[Tinkering_Pirate]

I absolutely love this. I am slowly turning my office into a "wizard's study" and it seems to me that a log with luminescent mushroom growing on it would fit in quite well with the theme!

[fire1888]

Very creative and very unique, great job! :)

[rallen71366]

Wonderful idea, and execution was great! Did you think about grabbing one of those cheap $5 led yard lights, and gutting it for the parts? It should already work, and you're just making a new, more artistic, body for it.

[clay_modeling]

I was thinking that one could make these without the internal LEDs and illuminate them from above with a UV LED or two (or even a deep Blue LED). The phosphorescent Sculpey stuff should glow with a little more subtle light.

[supersoftdrink]

We considered aiming a couple UV LEDs at the mushrooms, but the blue spot where the light hit directly was too noticeable, even after we ground down the clear plastic part of the LED with the dremel to diffuse the light. It was difficult to get even illumination.

[clay_modeling]

Oh well, so much for that idea. The pictures you took look great - I know how hard it is to photograph low-light stuff, especially with light sources. The mushrooms are very artfully done. I think the hardest part of this project would to get them (for me) to look like mushrooms.

[rcisneros]

Simple yet interesting. I was thinking of getting some UV LEDs and this would work perfectly as a project for them. A little florescent paint along with some glow in dark paint so they can glow(reflect) white when they are illuminated by the uv and then they can glow when they are not. Maybe even a slow blink. Hmmm. Thanks for the idea.

[supersoftdrink]

we were going to use UV LEDs but we lost one and Josh said they all had to match ;)

[yoyojedi]

Awesome! I have plans to make one of these myself. You beat me to it! Nice!

[artinct]

Very nice work. I'll never make one but I do appreciate what you've done. Thank you for sharing. Art

[trustr]

just amazing I love it