When I came across a large, star-shaped, retro-style lightbulb at our local hardware store, it just had to become something Super Mario-related. This led to some sketching and pondering, followed by a first box prototype (forgot to photograph that, but it wasn’t great, so you’re not missing much!). We were still adding the finishing touches to the kids’ room, so it seemed like a perfect solution for their ceiling light.
After some adjustments and a bit of redesigning, I fired up the Glowforge and ended up with some rather singed pieces of plywood. Duh. Forgot to protect the surface with low-tack paper… It didn’t matter much, though, as I had planned to paint the box. I had planned on using yelow acrylic at first, but a can of gold spray paint caught my eye, and the temptation of not having to clean brushes and getting it done quicker was too much to resist.
The cut out shapes underneath were supposed to let the bulb light shine upwards and light up the inside of the cube through the paper lining inside the cut out plywood. It didn’t quite work though, the light of the bulb did light it up a little, but not enough for it to be visible, especially with the brighter bulb light directly below.
I had designed the box to attach to the ceiling through the top lid, which should have been cut snug enough for the rest of the box to just snap on. That was the theory.
To be fair, it almost worked, but the bulb was a little too heavy and kept dragging the whole thing down off the top plate, so I ended up reinforcing the fit with a couple of strategically-placed nails.
At the time, the kids were tiny, so they had no idea what it was, but it was shiny and star shaped, so they were delighted.
The whole thing was quite a learning process, and one of the main take-aways from it was that when you have a bedroom with a lower-than-average ceiling, you don’t want a tall ceiling light that you’re going to smack your kid’s head into every time you lift them up above your head… So, after a while, the light came down, and is now awaiting to be repurposed as a table lamp, with the star on the top, which is also more aligned with Mario cannon.