This Instructable shows you how to make a Monkey Light sculpture from foam packaging material that you obtain when you purchase an electronic or electrical appliance.

You can see in the picture that the monkey legs are supplying power to the light source inside the foam material.

Supplies

materials: foam material

parts: light bulb or bright LED with a resistor, light bulb holder, battery harness (depending on the light bulb required voltage: 1.5 V, 6.3 V or 12 V), battery, high power wires, electrical tape, masking tape.

tools: wire stripper, pliers, scissors, screwdriver (for the light bulb holder).

optional tools: soldering iron, crocodile clips, power supply (do not connect to the computer or laptop USB output).

Step 1: Cut the Foam

Use the scissors to cut the foam.

You can see that I used a green plastic bag to avoid a mess in my room.

Step 2: Make a Hole for the Arms

Use the scissors to make hole for the arms.

You can see that I used a green plastic bag to avoid a mess in my room.

Step 3: Connect the Light Source

There are more expensive light bulb holders that can be connected to wires with screws. They are safer than the one that I used because there is less chance of a short circuit.

Warning: Make you make a tight connection that does not short the power terminals or you might damage the power source (battery or power supply/fuse) of cause explosion of the power source.

If you are using a bright LED then you connect a resistor in series with the bright LED.

The appropriate value of resistance will equal to:

Rled =(Vs - Vled) / IledMax

(3 V - 2 V) / 10 mA = 100 ohms

(5 V - 2 V) / 10 mA = 300 ohms or 330 ohms

(6 V - 2 V) / 10 mA = 400 ohms or 390 ohms

(9 V - 2 V) / 10 mA = 700 ohms or 680 ohms

(12 V - 2 V) / 10 mA = 1 kohms

However, there are bright LEDs sold on the internet (eBay, Amazon, Aliexpress) that can handle a range of voltages from 3 V to 12 V. Then you would not need any resistor.