Saturday, January 1, 2011

What is Matt up to... Part Deux

Waiting with bated breath from the previous post? Read on to see what I made!

I got some glass jars, frosting them with glass frosting spray paint
I think it's neat how fast it dries. 
And how it smells. 
Mmmm... killing brain cells.

Took apart some super cheap solar LED lights, which ended up being the perfect size for the lids of the jars.


Glued them into the lids (not upside-down like this, they're just resting that way to dry).

Deanna cut the bottoms off of some (translucent) colored plastic party cups.

Then I glued them over the LEDs, which will go inside the jar. 

 I suppose in the long run it'd be a better plan to replace the standard white LED with a colored LED and eliminate the need for the plastic cups and gluing... but whatev.

The result? Sun jars!

They charge in direct sunlight and glow when it gets dark, storing a jar full of sunlight. Neat!

Multiple colored glowy goodness! Wooo!

The red one is a bit darker than the others, which would be another good reason to replace the LED instead of using plastic cups... I'm sure a pure red LED would be pretty bright, even with the relatively low voltage of the solar cell and rechargeable battery. 

I'm planning on making more eventually, I think it'd be really cool to make a whole bunch and put them on an outdoor patio. Or to use LEDs that would cycle between different colors. 

Hope the fam likes 'em!

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