Jellyplastic

Jellyplastic is an interactive lamp aiming to raise awareness to the marine pollution. The piece is mostly made out of found objects.

There are three main parts to create the Jellyplastic:

Part One: Create the background platform for the Jellyplastic

Part Two: Create the Jellyplastic

Part Three: Make the piece light up

Materials you need for:

Part One: Create the background platform for the Jellyplastic

1. Container to put in water

2. Marbleize Paint

3. 100% cotton fabric, I found gray colored fabric so I am going to use that

Part Two: Create the Jellyplastic

4. Plastic Sheets (can use plastic bottles)

5. Plastic Cup

6. Plastic Bag

7. Cutter

8. Glue Gun

9. Copper Tape

Part Three: Make the piece light up

10. Soldering Machine

11. Solder

12. Wires

13. Clear Tape

14. Led Lights (5 purple color, 3 blue color)

15. Conductive Thread

16. Needle

17. Arduino

To hide the wires and to have a platform to put the Jellyplastic, I decided to use fabric to make it look more flexible like the water where jellyfishes live

1. Fill up the container with water

2. Drop one by one droplet of blue paint into the water

3. Lay down the fabric on the surface of the water

4. Pick up the fabric and let it dry fully

5. Cut the marbleize fabric into the shape that the paint has formed

1. Cut the plastic sheets into strips

2. Bend one strip to make a circular shape and glue both sides together using the glue gun, this will create the base for the jellyplastic's head

3. Glue one side of the plastic strip to a side of the circular base and glue another side of the plastic strip to the opposite side of the circular base, keep gluing the strips around the circular shape to make a dome

4. Cut a piece of plastic bag and put it inside of the head, glue it up using glue gun

5. Cut the top of a plastic cup and put it inside the head as the last image, this will be the method to attach the head onto the background platform, we've created in the previous step

1. Dot glue gun one inch apart from each other and paste strips of plastic bag to make a wave, create five of them

2. Create a circular base for the legs and glue the plastic bag legs onto them evenly around the circular base

3. Paste copper tape on a plastic strip, and cut the sides of the strip in zigzag on both sides, once finish, twist and fold it to create a curl looking leg, create five of them

4. Paste scotch tape on three of the copper legs, and leave two to show the conductive thread, this is to make only two legs actually conductive

1. Cut holes that are around half an inch on a plastic strip and put in a purple LED in the middle, put a resistor next to the longer LED leg and solder it together

2. Using conductive thread, sew from each side of the LED down the plastic strip, do this for three LEDs, but for one strip turn around the LED so it will face the other side

3. Sew conductive thread to one plastic strip without LED and resistor, this will be the ground line

4. Sew the LED plastic strips on the side that doesn't have the resistor onto the ground line, the one that faces the other side will be in the middle facing the head of the jellyplastic, and the other two will face the legs of the jellyplastic

5. Glue the ground line plastic strip around the head of the jellyplastic

6. Attach the jellyplastic onto the background platform and sew the ground plastic strip down under the background platform

1. Solder a resistor to the longer side of the LED, make three for blue LEDs and two for purple LEDs

2. Sew the ground line straight down the background platform

3. Sew the LED side to the ground line, and sew the other side down the background platform as shown in the diagram above (! No thread should be touching each other, if touch, use scotch tape to prevent them from laying on top of each other !)

1. Sew conductive thread to connect the conductive jellyplatic's leg to the round circular base, sew one leg to the left side, sew another conductive leg to the right side

2. Put the threads of both sides under the background platform

3. On one of the sides connect it to a resistor and use two wires to connect to each side of the resistor's legs

1. Connect wires to the end of each line

2. Connect each wire to the Arduino according to the diagrams

3. Using the Debounce code from the examples on Arduino, code up all the LEDs in the Jellyplastic