Wow, this was a disaster. I had planned to be nearly done for this assignment, with all the lights wired up to the sculpture; a mostly finished project. However, the nightmare that was creating a stable skeleton completely derailed my plans. With a basic wireframe made of doubled-up wire, duct tape, hot glue, and wood, I moved on to covering the sculpture with clay, trying to make a uniform, bone-white exterior. The clay had a dry-time of one day, so I had to wait to see how my creation would turn out.

Everything was going well until I looked a little closer a few days later. Needless to say, I was not pleased:

Everything was cracking and falling apart. I aired my grievances to the class. Additionally, the dog skeleton had rickets: that is, the legs splayed out when it had to support its own weight, making it look as though it was squatting. Pieces of clay were falling off everywhere.

Desperately I sought to bind the broken bones, or support the structure somehow. The only solution was to hang it from a hook, which lessened the load on the weak legs. In my frustration, I grabbed some washi tape and began binding up the legs.

Eventually, this method of “mummifying” the dog became necessary to prevent further fallout, so I mummified the entire dog.

Then came the 3D printing. A few crystals had come out ok; surely I could set up a larger print and have it complete flawlessly, as it did before, but overnight? (A foolish thought). It failed 75% through, splitting miserably and brittlely through the centre of all the crystals.

Exhausted and, after two near-sleepless nights, I toiled on. I salvaged the crystal tips that I could, and glued together some of the less broken pieces. I stripped wires in an attempt to power my LED strips. I modified Arduino code. Finally, and late, I reached “everything working”.

Admittedly, these next two photos were accomplished some days after this assignment was due, but I feel like they embody when I actually accomplished “all working”. The skeleton is completely bound and wired up, with LEDs up the spine for the crystals, and the LED tape snugly inside the ribcage.

Even though it isn’t pretty quite yet, nothing cannot quite describe my satisfaction when I plugged it all in and saw it gleam. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.