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.
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