LED Cloud Light
Intro: LED Cloud Light
This bright and versatile cloud light can be large or small, color changing or white, and hung from the ceiling or stand alone! Made mainly from paper lanterns and cotton batting, the cloud is easy to assemble and lightweight. Lights are small and battery operated so that the cloud may be hung from the ceiling or stand-alone (and it is fully portable)!
STEP 1: Gathering Materials
To make the cloud body you will need:
-one large oblong paper lantern
-two small oblong paper lanterns
-cotton batting
-hot glue gun & glue
STEP 2: Creating the Cloud Body
Assemble paper lanterns according to directions. Tear small pieces of cotton batting out of bag and hot glue them on to lantern body. After gluing each piece, hold in place for 5-10 seconds to ensure it will stick. Continue covering lantern body in cotton, leaving each end open so you can insert lights later. Repeat this process with each paper lantern.
STEP 3: Assembling the Cloud
Once all three lanterns are covered, allow them to dry overnight. Then use white string to tie the lanterns together (for our paper lantern, we tied the string to the wire frame inside). You can tie the sections together in unique ways to create the cloud shape you want!
STEP 4: Securing the Ties
Apply hot glue to each string knot to secure the ties between sections. Allow the glue to dry, and then move your piece around to ensure its the shape you want. If it isnt, you can cut the strings and reattach pieces.
STEP 5: Lighting the Cloud
STEP 6: Building a Frame
You will need:
-seven lengths of PVC pipe: two the same length for the sides (~4ft), four the same length for the base (~1ft), one for the top bar (~3.5ft)
-two joints
-two tees
We used 1" pipe and spray painted it silver. Assemble pieces as shown to create frame.
22 Comments
Victor805 7 years ago
Cotton is highly flamable, even some sparks can set it on fire, and with that amount it would be a big problem if that was to happen, so I wouldn't let it unsupervised, even a small short in a battery could be a disaster, I've seen you used polyester, which is quite flammable too, but at least it is a bit harder to ignite compared to cotton.
Doublekross 1 year ago
joebro391 7 years ago
Victor805 7 years ago
A battery can easily output enough current when shorted to get wires red hot if they're thin enough.
Doublekross 1 year ago
You can also use spray glue instead of hot glue, which some might find easier. Although the aerosols are flammable, the glue isn't flammable once it's dry.
I like the idea of using paper lanterns to pre-make the interior of the cloud and provide shaping; just make sure to buy the lanterns made with fire-retardant paper. The cheap stuff from the dollar store often goes up in a flash!
Anastasia_14 2 years ago
scoluccio 7 years ago
mlehane 3 years ago
UNSEPARABLE TECHSCIENTIFICS 6 years ago
BEAUTIFUL DISPLAY!!!!
ZrvZ 7 years ago
Nice, it reminds me of a cloud I made for my daughter to hang above her tipi. It is using a Particle Photon to enable a connection to the cloud, pun intended, connected with a couple of hundred LEDs in a strip. I also added some voice control through connecting it with Amazons Alexa. So I can say "Alexa trigger rainbow and the whole things starts pulsing and so on.
Simon-LennertR 7 years ago
So. Cool.
This looks awesome. How is it powered?
ZrvZ 7 years ago
blue LED 7 years ago
Very clever, and use full for so many ideas/projects.
The usefulness of todays technologies is the ability to do things safely; that would be impossible or at best, very cumbersome, with the old types (i.e. incandescent bulbs and 120V AC extension cords)
Good job. Good Instructable too.
go_boy 7 years ago
My wife and I made precisely these clouds a few years ago as gifts for many friends. Paper lanterns covered in polyfill, then I would suspend an Arduino pro mini in the middle and pwm control each color's pin on 3-4 RGB LED's (normal 5mm ~20ma RGB 4 lead LEDs) to do fades and colors, including the thunderstorm suggested by DGW in the first comment. They would run for days on end on 4 AAA batteries, or I would add a DC input for friends who wanted to plug them in continuously. Many of them are still working now, though personally I have moved on to bigger and more complex animations with hundreds of LED's (luckily I don't have to pwm drive them all anymore!).
The only addition I suggest is that if you go the Arduino route, do like I did and add an IR sensor so you can change colors/speeds/animations while it's hanging up by the ceiling on the other side of the room!
DGW 7 years ago
A wonderful project! What if you put several colors of LEDs in the cloud and ran the wires out to a control box instead of using batteries. Maybe use an Arduino to control it. Then you could set up programs such as warm hues of red and yellow, or cool hues of purple and blue for night AND a Thunderstorm: dim white and purple with occasional brilliant flashes of white. For those use white 10 Watt LEDs (Marlin P. Jones). These require a heat sink for normal use but would not be needed if you just flash them milliseconds at a time.
RichardC200 7 years ago
If lights were enclosed in clear heat resistant plastic tubing i would feel safer....or at least allow plenty of airflow around bulbs
joebro391 7 years ago
tommy2toes 7 years ago
awesome i like this for my grandsons room we did glow stars and planets this would be a great milky way.
zencuke 7 years ago
I love it. It is in my future. Thanks. Have you seen the Ardent Mobile Cloud Platform shown at Burning man a couple of years ago? It was bigger but yours is prettier. Consider fadeCandy to show interesting LED colors.
lordofcake 7 years ago