Introduction: Crystal Ball Light Sensitive Night Light

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About: I love making things and keeping busy. I prefer making things rather than buying the finished products. People say to me 'you know, would have been cheaper if you just bought it', but they don't understand t…

I bought some petite water globes (5 globes to a package) to make some small party favor gifts.  The original intention was to fill the globe with water and snow.  However, I later changed it to a night light instead.  I didn't want to have to cut holes in the wooden base that came with the globe,  so I created my own base (and saved the wooden base for another project).  I was able to create a wood color out of polymer clay.  Some of the pictures in this instructables will show the original wooden base that came with the globes before I changed my mind.

NOTE:  My hot glue got a little messy.  I will need to figure out how to clean up the glue line before I can give this away.  I may try to use a hot knife to trim the glue.

The head dress is made with glow in the dark clay so it glows after the lights are turned off.

Material

Sculpture parts:
Fimo Polymer Clay
Varathane Polyurethane High Gloss
Blue Diamond Habanero Nuts Canister
Petite Water Globe Kit - Found here - http://www.rakuten.com/prod/petite-water-globe-snow-globe-kit-is-designed-for-do-it-yourself/250395209.html .  Also available on Amazon
Aluminum foil
Hot glue


Electronic parts:
Parts from http://www.taydaelectronics.com
small white led
resistor 270 ohm and 100K ohm resistors
6 v battery
LDR

Attachments

Step 1: Create the Big Bear

Follow the pictures to create the Big Bear.

Some additional notes:

The bear is fairly large so I used balled up aluminum foil and covered it with clay for the body.  I also shaped the aluminum foil into a rounded retangular form for the pillow and covered it with red clay.

I used glow in the dark clay for the head dress.

For the jewel, I dusted it with gold pearl ex to make it sparkly.

Not pictured - take an empty can of nuts and turn it upside down.  Cover the can with green clay and place the bear on top.  Make sure the lid can still fit over the clay.  I didn't check this when I baked the canister and ended up having to trim off some of the clay.  I may go back later and create a clay lid instead.


Step 2: Create the Mini Me Bear

Follow the picture for the Mini Me Bear.

Additional notes:
Follow same procedures as the Big Bear but on a smaller scale.

Place the globe over the bear to make sure it fits.

Step 3: Create Mini Faux Wood Base

To make the base:

Take some beige clay and roll into a log.  Take some dark brown and white clay and roll into much thinner logs.

Add the thinner brown and white logs to the beige logs and roll gently to elongate.

Fold the log in half and flatten it so that all 3 colors show up.

Gently roll and elongate again.

Fold log in half and flatten again. 

Keep repeating this procedure until the colors become thinner and more blended.  It should begin to look like wood.

Roll the wood colored clay into a ball and elongate into a thick cylinder for the mini ball.  The picture shows a bead that I was originally planning to use in the water globe.  You can use this and skip the electronics and use the original wooden base for the globe.

For the larger wooden base, use much thicker logs of clay and follow same procedures of rolling, folding, and flattening the clay.

Make sure the base is large enough to house the electronics.

Step 4: Assemble and Add Electronics

Bake the bear per instructions on the clay package (without the glass globe).  The large wood colored base was not attached to the green base yet. 

After baking, take a hammer and nails to punch 2 holes in the green base for the battery.  

Gently create a hole in the large wood colored base if not done previously before baking.  

Cut a slot for the switch and a hole for the LDR.  Glue  the large wood colored base to the green base. 
NOTE:  You can move the switch to the green base instead for a nice appearance.  I didn't think of this until after the fact.

Gently drill a small hole in the small wood base for the LED.  I used a dremel to drill the hole.   I added heat shrink tubes to each of the LED legs because the hole is so small.  Insert the LED through the small wood base.  Glue the Mini Bear to the globe.

I soldered the electronics to a small round pcb (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3173937 ), then stuffed it in the wood colored base.  Take the ends that go to the battery and thread through the holes into the green base.  Take the switch and glue it in place in the hole.  Take the LDR and push it through the small hole in the large wood colored base.
NOTE: Next time, I may use 10K resistor plus a potentiometer to adjust the light sensitivty. And test the circuit before attaching to the base!

Glue the globe to the large wooden base.

Attach the wires to the 6V battery.

Carefully glaze the assembled pieces with the Varathane.