Light Bulb - Terrarium

Turn a blown bulb into a mini terrarium....

This instructable is longer than other bulb-terrarium instructables.

This is due to the foot piece and also the stuff you put inside the bulb.

Enjoy!

You will need the following safety equipment:

1) Safety glasses;
2) Mouth mask;
3) Safety gloves.

You will need the following tools and equipment:

1) Bulb;
2) Dremel (optional);
3) Vacuum cleaner or Broom;
4) Skrewdriver;
5) Sand;
6) Small stones;
7) Pebbels;
8) Small plant or moss;
9) Cork;
10) Small piece of wood;
11) Sandpaper;
12) Drill (optional);
13) 4 small pieces of rubber (for the feet)

Take the bulb and hold it GENTLY but firmly, avoiding the round glass part.

You can either use pliers, side cutters, screwdriver or a Dremel. (not to hold the bulb.....for opening the bulb)

I used my Dremel to cut open the bottom part of the bulb.

This saved me time and the mess that sometimes accompany other methods of opening a bulb.

Please take note that you are working with glass that is brittle and especially if you are cutting the bulb open, that very small "glass dust" will be flying around.....

Photo 2 is after the cut.

If for some reason the inside stuff did not fall out after you cut the bulb open, take a screwdriver or longnose pliers ant GENTLY tak it out.

If you cut open the bulb using a Dremel, the inside components (glass, wire, etc.) falls out.

I used warm (not hot) water and soap to wash the bulb.

Don't stick you fingers or other body parts into the open side of the bulb to clean it......rather submerge the bulb and sort of "shake" it underwater.

Rinse and reapeat until clean.

Put it in a safe place to dry, open side towards the floor/ground so that the water can run out while drying.

I took a small piece of offcut pine (use any wood) to make the base for the terrarium to sit on.

Cut your piece of wood to size ( just bigger than the bulb) then sand it with 80 grid sandpaper then 120 grid sandpaper. (I used my Dremel for cutting and sanding).

The sunken area in the middel of the wooden block is for the terrarium to sit in when finished.

I drew with a marker using another bulb to get the size.

I used my Dremel for this and also sanded it again with the Dremel.

I took 4 small rubbers that I salvaged from the bottom plate of an old DVD player, to use in this project.

Drill or sink 4 holes for the rubbers. I again used my Dremel for this (I love that Dremel!)

I then used glue to secure the 4 rubber feet to their holes.

I used the following and also in the following order.

1) Sand from the garden;
2) Rough sand (bigger grain). I used swimming pool filter sand;
3) Pebbles, also from my garden.

Take 1 to 2 teaspoons of water and wet the sand.

Then select your plant/s and Gently plant them.

Then put in the rougher sand (bigger grain).

Then put the pebbles on top of that.

The glue should be hard by nou, so place your terrarium in the sunken area.

Depending on the type of plant (I chose a succulent) you can choos to close your terrarium with a cork or leave it open.

Done!!!!

Thanks for reading my instructable, I hope that this helped someone.