The squeezable nightlight has a silicone top, an LED circuit, and a resin base.
Silicone is a handy substance found in a wide Build the Electronics range of devices, including drip irrigation emit- You can use any small light circuit you want; ters, gaskets, breast implants, and sex toys. Al- we built ours with an IR sensor, a microchip-though it isn’t typically used for lighting, silicone controlled RGB LED, and a rechargeable battery. is translucent and nonconductive — properties When the light’s on, it cycles through ambient which make it great lamp material. We’re going rainbow colors, and in detect mode, it blinks for to show you how to cast the stuff into any shape five seconds whenever a pet (or Boogieman) you want to create a squeezable, rechargeable comes near. (See page 140 for a barebones LED nightlight/Boogieman detector with its electronics flasher you can use with this project. — Ed.) enclosed inside the base.
Illustration by Sparkle Labs
Like cooking, molding silicone is a complicated Gather Your Materials process, and you may have to try it a few times before it comes out perfectly. But we’ll take it Nitrile or latex gloves Nitrile is preferred, since step by step. The process starts with building the latex inhibits the curing process. electronics. That way, you’ll know everything will fit inside the base, and you can sculpt spaces for Plasticine, Castaline, or other sculpting medium the switch and power cord. We used Castaline to sculpt the components. We
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