BULBS

Once my piece was cut and painted, I felt it lacked lighting. I knew I wanted to add lighting in, or even the effect of lighting.

After experimenting with EL wire and realising that it wasn't very flexible, and didn't give off a bright light, so I looked into lots of different lighting options. I looked at plug in or battery operated string lights, but soon realised that they would be extremely hard to find. I came across these small battery-operated LED lights. They are bulb shape, and very reminiscent of the vintage signs I have been looking into.

These bulbs were very cheap and a great solution for lighting, as apposed to expensive LED wire or even NEON.

I set up a file based around my existing Rock Bottom design, in a diamond shape, paying homage to the original Las Vegas inspired design I had experimented with early on in my project. I had to make sure that my bulbs would slot perfectly in the holes I would cut. With help from a technician we cut a test piece on the laser cutter, with lots of different diameter holes to test which size would work.

The finished laser cut back board. The holes will be filled with the tiny bulbs. These however are self contained with a battery inside, is activated with a small piece of plastic which needs to be pulled out. I will wait to my piece is ready to show before pulling these, as I want the lights to be bright.

The acrylic piece has a protective film on both sides, which I will also wait to remove, so the acrylic stays pristine with no scratches or finger prints.

FILM - BARBIE

I watched the Barbie movie, and found myself so inspired. Everything from the set, the theme, the storyline fed directly into my project theme. The Barbie movie used so much pink paint that it caused a worldwide shortage! The set design is based around Barbie's inception and rise to popularity, in the 50's and 60's, so it has a lot of mid-century modern influences in the costuming and set design.

This sign can be seen when Barbie and Ken travel to the 'Real World'. It is very much made in the modernist style with the bright colours, bold shapes and the large hollywood bulbs around the edge.

When Barbie is driving away form Barbieland you can see the place name written in the clouds, this goes back to my original idea of Rock Bottom & Cloud Nine.

Theme - Barbie's world is perfect until one day she wakes up and things start going wrong. There is a pivotal scene where she is doing a highly choreographed dance routine, and all the other Barbies are talking about how perfect the day is, and every day is and will always be. Out of the blue Barbie says 'Do you guys ever think about dying?' - This shocks everyone and the music stops. She then laughs it off and carries on dancing. I really related to this on a personal level, as sometimes I have found myself among friends saying something openly which shocks and metaphorically stops the music, and found myself laughing it off and going back to laughing and joking like nothing happened.

This is the part in the film where you feel Barbie is REAL and has feelings, emotions and even cellulite. Of course this film barely touches the surface as far as Barbie's mental health but it does have an undertone of battles with depression/anxiety.

The Barbie set contained a lot of hand-made elements. The colour palette is made up of delicious candy pinks, blues and greens. Barbieland itself is in the middle of a vast desert, as is Las Vegas and that aesthetic of signage that I have been researching. I would love to use these colours in my piece.

The shape, colours, composition and style of this sign used in the Barbie promotional tour was a huge inspiration to me. I also love the glossy style which makes it look almost plastic, like a Barbie doll.

SANDING

Once my sign was primed, I intended to sand it down to create an immaculate finish. As my piece was so intricate, traditional sand paper didn't work and actually caused one of my words to snap in half. Upon searching for a solution on the internet I found this electric nail file usually named a 'Dremel'

This is USB powered and allowed me to work from my laptop at my desk. The various points and tips allowed me to very finely detail my piece, getting in each tiny space to sand back splashes and blobs of paint. This sanding gave me a smooth surface which allowed me to paint in thin layers and pack colour in making it super vibrant and bright as I intended.