I have chosen the long animal project. I did not have a lot of time to work on him this week due to a crisis at work, but this is what I have so far.

Fairy Lights

I decided to use some Neopixel RGB fairy lights from Adafruit, which I have ordered but they haven’t arrived yet. I will be controlling them with an Arduino Nano. Because I want to mount this project on the wall, I considered a few options for powering it. While I do have a wall adapter power supply, I don’t want an obvious chord hanging off of the animal. I decided using a phone battery bank might be a good alternative, since it’s 5V and rechargeable. To test this idea, I set up an Arduino nano with a blinky program and ran it off of my battery bank.

Paper Maché Mold

I want to create a shape out of pink insulation foam which I can use to create the exact shape I want out of paper mache. I purchased some insulation foam from home depot, but I haven’t laminated the sheets together yet. I am working with the makerspace staff to set up a time for them to teach my how to use the CNC router, because I think that will be the easiest way to achieve my desired shape. I don’t have a lot of experience carving this foam by hand, and it would be difficult considering the complexity of the shape.

I started working on a Solidworks model of the animal. It is really difficult to get the correct shape, because I want the geometry to have an organic look and feel. I achieved this result by pasting an image of my paper sketch into Solidworks, and then tracing the outline with points. I connected all of the points with splines, and with some minor edits I achieved the outline I wanted.

To create the 3D model, I tried using surface tools, which I am not extremely familiar with but would like to learn. I haven’t gotten the surface model to work correctly yet, and the closest result I have gotten is still not aligned with the curvature I drew. Using surface tools would allow me to machine the 3D profile to almost exactly what I want, minimizing the amount of sanding and post-processing I would need to do.

If I can’t get surface tools to work in time, by backup plan is to simply extrude the profile I drew and put a large fillet on the edge. This method does not get me as close to the final dimensions, but will do in a pinch if I can’t get anything else to work. I can easily sand this shape into something with a more rounded profile.

I also measured out the dimensions of my Solidworks model and sketched it on a piece of paper to make sure I was modeling the size I envisioned.

Next Steps

I have a lot of work to do, but some of my next puzzles include:

• Determining how he will mount to the wall. I plan on using a foam board backing to mount the paper mache, but I’m not sure how to attach the board to the wall
• Design an easy way to change the battery or remove LEDs. I don’t want to have to take it off the wall to remove and recharge the battery
• Purchase the Dangly Bits. I want to have little charms hanging off of the animal to give the suggestion of legs, but I also want them to refract the light a little. I’m imaging some kind of rhinestone jewelry from the dollar store
• The Dangly Bits need some reinforcement where they attach to the animal, because the paper mache is very thin and not structural

Shopping List

• Ingredients for Dangly Bits
• Clear Marbles (eyes)
• Foam board (white)