This week I failed at making the planets. A few things went into this failure. My main issue is that they are much too large. For my original idea, I wanted fairly large planets so I ordered 16 in diameter clear beach balls to use as the base. However the size is a problem for a couple reasons. Number one, I don’t know if any of you have tried to work with a large, sticky ball hanging by a string, but it was VERY difficult to work with (lots of bunched up tape, clothes/hair sticking to the ball, it falling and collecting dust, knocking off the lights, etc). Secondly, I just don’t think it looks good. Because of the size, I had to space out the el wire quite a bit. I still like how the el wire “glows” and reflects off the ball however it kind of looks too much like a ball wrapped in some wire (in a bad way). In order to make it not look like just a ball wrapped in a wire, I would have to use much more wire and wrap the wire much closer together. For just half a planet I had already used 3 strings and at this rate, I would not be able to make the 4+ planets as I had hoped because I wouldn’t have enough el wire. So to recalibrate, I’ve ordered 6inch beachballs and they will be here on Thursday. The smaller spheres will allow better handling of the sculpture and it will look better aesthetically. This also gives me the opportunity to have more than 2 planets which I think will be important to my final installation.

With this failed planet attempt I also explored using tissue paper to diffuse the light from the el wire. I’m not too sure how I feel about it, it can be seen in the image below. I think it gives a fun texture but it also makes the planet not glow as much. I will have to test this again when I have constructed the smaller planets.

The last thing I did this week was begin the construction of the starts. I am using 20 string lights as the “core” of the star and wrapping them in tissue paper and then using clear wire to hang them to give them a floating appearance. I think that they’re coming out pretty cool and that when they’ll be hanging in constellations that they’ll come across well.

After this week, I have updated my calendar plan for the rest of the term. I will probably spend a large chunk of time this weekend on this project recalibrating and ensuring that the smaller planets work better and if not, I’ll find another solution.