DIY Hot glue lightstone

Kit and Making Things Costume and Crafting
#1

I’ve been thinking about how to make an cheap lightstone - so here is my hot glue solution!

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You will need:
Hot glue
Baking paper
A light source (I used a camping light)
Scissors
** Optional
Superglue
Craft knife

Step 1: Glue Panels
Lay down some baking paper, shiny side up. Make small ‘sheets’ of hot glue by quickly gluing lines of hot glue, up and down next to each other on the paper. I made sheets about 10cm square, using about 4 hot glue sticks.

Step 2: Geometry
Work out what shape pieces you need to make up your crystal shape. You can guestimate if you don’t want to revisit high school trig! I made up my patterns in paper and checked it fitted my torch.

Step 3: Cut faces
Cut out each face of the crystal from the glue sheets with scissors. You can use tape to stick together your glue shapes to preview your crystal.

Optional Step
Using a craft knife, trim the edges of each face at an angle so they fit against each other neatly.

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Step 4: More glue!
Use tape to hold the sections together and carefully glue the edges together.

Note You will be able to see the glue trails you make on this step in the final lamp. It might be better to use superglue here if you want a clean finish.

Step 5: Light it up
Put your light source under the crystal and enjoy the soft glow of your very own discount lightstone!

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Of course, this is just my first and second attempt - any ideas on how to improve this? Or other ways of crafting a lightstone under £10? Let me know your thoughts :slight_smile:

9 Likes
#2

Try this: When you are done, paint the ‘crystal’ in glow-in-the-dark paint. While the light is on, it will make little difference, but when you switch it off, the paint will have been charged by the light and will continue to glow eerily for quite some time.

I bought a bag of white LEDs. The exact same one that is in that camping lamp your have there. That lamp has one, I have been using 3-4 per lantern I build. I solder them in position and glue glass nuggets to them. The nuggets are then painted with glow in the dark paint. This makes them dispersive and eerie when off.

I have mounted this structure into a staff, into lamps etc. Works nicelty.

Photos are here.

[22 new items added to shared album] Glow Stones
4 Likes
#3

Last photos in the album are off Arduino powered RGB glow stones.

#4

As an alternative to sheets of hot-glue, the translucent/white plastic often used for milk bottles might work well, I think?

#5

It does…

As does the pods that Dylon uses for the ‘bung it in the washing machine’ dye…my light is a string of battery powered LED fairy lights bundled into one and held in place by some foam clay

Still need to paint it, but it works brilliantly…until I can get my hands on some of the hyper glow pigment power that Culture Hustle does