Archive for the 'DIY' Category

Woah…A DIY Project Not for the Faint of Heart

Published
by
Christine
on March 3, 2010
in Creative-Uses, DIY, Innovative Technology and LED Lights
. 0 Comments

3948083204_4039429db2_oBefore you decide if this project is for you, you should answer two very important questions.

1. How much do you like bugs, or other very small, fast moving objects? (If the answer is anything but “a whole heck of a lot,”‘ then you might not be so into this idea.)

2. How much do you like photography? And I’m not talking about looking at pretty pictures, I’m talking actually taking pretty pictures. (If the answer isn’t “I’m obsessed with taking pictures!”, then once agian, this project is probably not for you.)

If you answered sufficiently, however, read on!

So here’s the deal, you bug-nutty shutter-bug, you! A Belgian photographer who goes by the name of Fotoopa has devised a way to take what some are calling the best, clearest and most up-close shots of flying insects (namely: bees) ever. A key component of his contraption is infrared LED lights, as the LEDs are what detect when the bug has flown into optimal shooting range, and then signal the camera to take a picture. In fact, because of the use of IR LEDs, it even works in complete darkness. Before Fotoopa’s invention, the old mode of thought on wildlife and especially insect photography was that you had to take a ton of crappy pictures just to get one or two good ones. And even those were luck of the draw. That’s because human reaction time just isn’t fast enough to capture a tiny insect in flight with as much precision as is needed to take a truly clear picture. If you modify your camera using Fotoopa’s instructions, however, you can get great shots in 10 seconds! Click here to see his DIY instructions for making this ingenious instrument, and say goodbye to the days of frustration and wasting shots. That assuming you already spend a lot of days frustrated over your sub-par photographs of bees. I’m guessing not many of you do, but hey, maybe it’s time for a new hobby!

Gorgeous Glowing Sculpture!

Published
by
Christine
on February 19, 2010
in Creative-Uses, DIY, Innovative Technology and LED Lights
. 0 Comments

illum_sky1 I hate to rub it in, but I had a fantastic Valentine’s Day weekend. I know it’s easy to hate Valentine’s day, seeing how it’s a Hallmark holiday and all that, but it’s also easy to love it–what’s not to like about chocolate and kissing, two major V-day cornerstones? This year was great because my honey came to visit me, and we got to participate in LA’s biggest V-day event, Lucent L’amour. Besides the great music lineup, there was also some truly awe-inspiring art at this event, some of which incorporated full color LED lights!

Take a look, for instance at the illuminated sculpture by Sean Sobczak, also called “Sandman Creations.” Several of these brilliant and beautiful pieces were arranged just inside the entrance to the indoor venue at Lucent L’amour, and they were breathtaking! The light embedded within each sculpture created lines and shadows that seemed to undulate as if the sculptures really were the underwater creatures they were made to represent. As you can imagine, without LED technology, sculptures like these would not be possible. What other type of light fixture can you bend and twist and manipulate to get any shape imaginable? What other light fixtures provide such a mesmerizing and limitless color scheme? What other form of lighting stays cool enough to handle for hours, no matter what the creative process throws at you?

illum_lgoct1 While we here at Elemental don’t sell any of the “el wire” that Sean uses in his sculptures, we do have tons of flexible RGB LED strip lighting in a full array of colors. So if you’re itching to make your own illuminated sculpture, you know just where to go to make it happen! In fact, what a great idea for next year’s Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetie! Nothing says “I love you” like something you made yourself!

LEDs light up a midtown gallery

Published
by
Dan
on January 26, 2010
in DIY
. 2 Comments

We recently spoke with Grimanesa Amorós, an artist who splits her time between New York City and Peru, about a recent gallery installation in which she used some of our flexible LED strip lighting. In the installation, titled La Incubadora (2010), she has re-envisioned the Lab Gallery at Roger Smith Hotel in Manhattan as a warm human incubator for her sculptures of imagined hybrid humans.

Did this kind of flexible LED strip lighting suggest how the pieces in La Incubadora would be installed, or did you have a vision of it prior to finding the lights?

“We have often used LED lights in other projects, so we understood the potential and capabilities that are unique to LEDs. We chose your warm white LED strips because they are flexible, low voltage and can be cut to any desired length. The idea was to create futuristic heating elements around each of the figures. It needed to be flexible strips to create a curve around the wombs and to be warm white to simulate heat. Simulated warmth was important because the sculptures are made of wax and hand made abaca pulp from the Philippines, which makes them sensitive to temperature changes.”

You say in a statement about the piece that “the lighting in the space and the music…reinforce[s] the magical quality that many of us feel when confronting the wonders (or monsters?) of modern science.” How do you think the lighting helps to achieve this?

“LEDs are indicative of modernity and more and more everyday devices are incorporating built-in luminance as both a practical and an aesthetic feature. In nature, light predominately comes from the sky, therefore light from below has an eeriness which is indicative of humanity’s abstraction of nature.”

Without asking you to do the interpretation for us, how are the figures related to each other, in your view? Are they isolated? A community? What role does the lighting play in interpreting this piece?

“The humanoids are cooped up like livestock; some huddle for warmth, others try to escape. The round illumination both sustains and ensnares them. They were artificially inseminated so they have no mate outside of this space. They are all bound together under the same forced cohabitation, yet each alone.”

The final installation differs from the renderings, in that there are no silhouettes of the figures on the walls, and throughout there is just the warm white color of the lighting. What created these changes? Were there originally going to be elements of color and projection in the installation?

“I initially knew that I wanted lighting and shadow to play into this piece. I always wanted to have many more figures and the shadows would, in effect, duplicate their appearance. Unfortunately shadows are difficult to maintain in a windowed space with solar exposure, so the final execution was based on reenforcing the concept rather than multiplication of imagery.”

According to her statement, Amorós’s work “often makes use of sculpture, video, lighting and sound to create works that illuminate our notions of personal identity and community.” See more of this fascinating work at www.grimanesaamoros.com

Grimanesa Amoros's installation La Incubadora uses flexible LED strip lights.

Grimanesa Amoros's installation La Incubadora uses flexible LED strip lights.

Detail of the flexible LED lights used in La Incubadora.

Detail of the flexible LED lights used in La Incubadora.

Flexible LED strip lighting in the art installation "La Incubadora" by Grimanesa Amoros.

Flexible LED strip lighting in the art installation "La Incubadora" by Grimanesa Amoros.

DIY: Illuminated Signs with LED Light Modules

Published
by
Christine
on January 1, 2010
in Company News, Creative-Uses and DIY
. 0 Comments

It doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner trying to do a little DIY marketing, or a homeowner looking for a fun weekend project–the fact is: making your own illuminated sign is the way to go. One of the reasons it’s so easy is that here at Elemental LED, we sell all the parts you’ll need to light your sign up from the inside out, no matter what the size, or where you want to put it. We offer 1 watt LED light modules, 3-bulb light modules and even waterproof LED light modules for those of you who want to make an illuminated sign that’s ready to weather any storm.

The great thing about these LED light modules is that they allow you to install light in a number of different spaces, while powering them all from the same source–it’s so simple! Furthermore, because of their compact size, you can install as many or as few as you want, to attain either a seamless, uninterrupted effect (inside a light box or sign) or a more directional yet inconspicuous effect (to display or draw attention to products on a shelf). Even better, we can offer most of these products in a full range of colors, so no matter what your project calls for, we’ve got it!

So how do you build your own illuminated sign? Believe it or not, you have most of the materials on hand in your own home. Check out this detailed step-by-step guide on Instructables.com. Practically anyone can do it! And remember, when you get to the step that requires light installation, you can get all of your products here at Elemental LED.