getting from the “bright idea” to making the flickering sign

It always seems to end up this way; I get a good idea, figure out the hard part, and spend hours and/or days on what was supposed to be the simple part. The flickering electronics part of the seedy hotel room sign is worked out, tested and approved. Now “all“ that remains is making the letters for the sign itself. Once upon a time it would have been easy to get all kinds of stencils so I could airbrush the background and the lettering of the sign. Now of course everything is done with computers and finding Letraset and/or stencils is really difficult. Looks like I may have to cut my own; something I was hoping to avoid so I could save time. I’ve spent more time looking for time savers than it will actually take me to cut the darn things.

paid to be messy

Right now I'm working on a really different project for a good client: a room box that is supposed to be shabby, run down and generally seedy. It is quite strange to prepare one of my hardwood floors, laid down 1/4 inch (about 1 cm) strip by strip and not only not worry about getting glue on the surface, but actually check and make sure I have enough glue spots to make for good stains when I finish the floor.
In a similar fashion, when painting the interior trim, instead of masking all the wallpaper, I made sure some paint got on the floor and on the wallpaper: sort of like being in grade 1 again! I also so going to be providing a flickering sign visible out of a window - sort of a failing Neon sign effect - should be very cool.

I'll post some pictures once the room is reassembled

responding to Heather's question about looking for ideas/information

This is a question that I don't really have a good answer for.

Most of my designs are a result of going into my studio, looking at the woods and other items I have around and playing with the materials. I read a lot of magazines and books, but most of my designs just "appear".

The table in the photo was the result of my looking at a piece of spalted (partially decayed) maple branch that I had in my wood pile. I realized that if I took 2 slices and flipped one of them end to end with the other, I would get an interesting design. The wood dictated the design of the piece to me.
  The more comfortable I get with something, the more I can design with it. With lights for example, I now have much more freedom to experiment because I know how to control their brightness, how to use multiple light sources in a single fixture, and, very important, what won't work. I guess my advice would be to just play with the materials until you get something you like - not much help I must admit.

So where are the comments?

There is a bug in blogger right now that sometimes results in comments not being displayed unless you actually click on the comment count below each posting. I'm trying to get this fixed so I can respond to your comments, but right now it's out of my control. Until that's fixed, I've added a gadget to some the most recent comments at the bottom of the page.

more on the KDF show

One of the items that I displayed that generated a lot of comment (and a sale -YES!) was a screen that could serve to separate areas in a room. The inspiration came from a lacquered screen by Eileen Gray from the deco period. As best I can tell, Eileen Gray is not too well known in North America, but she was influential in the French Deco scene.
Please note that the picture on the Victoria and Albert museum site is shown sideways! The rods run top to bottom, not side to side. I've notified the museum so this may change. I thought that my version provided a bit more flexibility in miniature scenes. It doesn't photograph all that well because it's not shown in any context. It's about 6 inches (15 cm) tall and each of the panels rotates separately. The back of each panel is plain, so you can get a wide variety of effects by rotating elements

on a hot streak light and sculpture

Once I made the initial table, I had to make new items to display on it, so I made a new table lamp and a "thing of purpose" out of acrylic. I used an LED in the table light; they are pretty much my standard now although they do take a extra hour or so of work to create. It does add a lot of freedom to the way I can design and build the lights, so it's worth it.

Well, managed to get the first version done today. It's a little guy - about 4 inches long and 2 1/4 inches tall. Bloodwood top, Jatoba base Ebony angles on the top's bottom - so to speak

plugging in those new lights

One of the things that I dislike the most are the unreliable, fragile, finicky plugs used with miniature lights. At shows they are a nightmare as one never knows if they are going to work and if by some chance they do work at first, will they  keep on working (not bloody likely is the answer). The main problem is that they rely on mechanical contact - friction to hold the wires in place and feeble springs in the sockets to make contact with the pins,   Today I started the process of replacing all the plugs, using electronic machined pins and sockets instead. The left photo show a cir-kits plug, a pin partially cleaned up and ready to use, a strip of pins, and a small socket. Once I cut a pin off the strip, I cut off the remaining plastic and solder in the lead. I then put a jacket of shrink tubing to cover the pin top and the joint
The leads are soldered into the plug pins, so they won't get shaken or pulled loose, nor will the contact be broken by oxides.
The other photos shows how compact the setup is and how many lights I can plug in securely in a very small space. For any techies out there, I'm driving LED lights, so the amperage is very small.

Another new LED light

I'm constantly finding new ways to combine LEDs with novel light forms. Knowing that the light source will never have to be accessed to change a bulb frees one up considerably in the design process

Using LEDs

A number of people have asked me about using LEDs in my miniatures and rooms and wondered if I used Novalyte™ LEDs. I don't; I usually assemble my own using some VERY small components. The photos give some idea of their size: that's a regular toothpick and the ruler divisions are 1/16 inch.




Why work with the little LEDs - because I can't get the results I want from ready made products here are two examples

updating track light design

I been working on a new design for my track lights and thing I have come up with an innovative way of attaching the heads to the "track" so I can hide the wires and still have tilt and swivel capabilities. I'm using LEDs for these and most other lights that I make. The example shown is 6 inches or 15 cm long.