I created the Long Animal because I wanted a fun, conceptual lamp to provide ambient lighting in my apartment. I designed and fabricated the lamp a long, abstract animal shape suggestive of something in between a slug and a cat. I created the animal-shaped diffuser by machining a mold and covering it with glue and tissue paper. Inside, I used an Arduino Nano to control a string of NeoPixel fairy lights, which faded slowly from one color to the next. I enclosed all the electronics under the light diffuser, and painted the casings white so they would not be visible from the outside, and powered circuit off of a rechargeable 5V battery bank to avoid a visible chord. On the underside of the animal, I attached strings of rhinestone beads to refract some of the light onto the mounting wall.

Materials & Software:

• NeoPixel LED Fairy Lights
• Arduino Nano
• Stripboard
• USB Cable with switch
• Phone battery bank
• Arduino IDE
• NeoPixel Arduino Library
• Foamcore Board
• Tissue paper & white glue
• Assorted beads
• Lots of superglue