Introduction: Mushroom Phyto Lamp

I got a few phyto LEDs and tried to do something nice with them. Regular phyto lamps look too industrial, and I wanted to give my windowsill garden a shade of magic.

Supplies

That's what we are going to need for the work:

  • silicone sealant
  • stretch film (a regular plastic bag will do the job)
  • phyto LED
  • wires
  • resistor - 47 to 470 ohm, the more ohm the dimmer your mushroom will be. If you doubt which one to choose - take the one with bigger resistance.
  • cable from an old computer mouse
  • jar or flower pot as a base
  • piece of cardboard
  • green sponge or something else to create moss


Tools:

Soldering iron, solder.

Step 1: Parts of the Mushroom

Attach the wires to the pin of your LED (make sure they are long enough for the stem)

For the stem "flesh" put some silicone on stretch film, if you want a colored stem - add some dye, I think that cinnamon, paprika powder or turmeric are the best solution for it (just add the color to the silicone and mix well, try not to touch the silicone with your bare hands, it's not very easy to wash off). Put the wires with the led into the silicone, cover it with the stretch film and form the stem.

For the cap put some silicone on a piece of stretch film, cover, and form a flapjack. Put it on something round, like a spoon handle (I used an ice-cream scoop) and press slightly, giving it a more cap-like form.

Let it dry overnight.

Step 2: Assembling the Lamp

When the silicone is dry, unwrap it. Cut the stem and cap to give it the shape you like. Solder a resistor to one of the wires.

For a power supply, I used a power cord from an old computer mouse. Be careful and check the polarity before soldering the wires. Usually, the red wire is "+" (solder it to the wire) and the black one is "-" (solder it to the resistor), but in my case, the red one had the negative polarity.

For the base, I used an empty cosmetics jar (run out of flower pots), attached a piece of cardboard on the top, and fastened the stem in the cardboard. I used an old green sponge as moss imitation. Then I glued the cap to the stem of the mushroom.

Your lamp is ready to provide your plants with the kind of light they need for growth (you will probably want to make more than one lamp to give them enough light).

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