The three iterations are almost entirely complete. The bases are 44″ tall made of the highest quality polished steel 1/16″ thin. The electronics consist of a servo motor rotating back and forth (so as not to tangle the wires). A cross attached to the servo holds the LEDs. The lights stay on and do not pulse as originally designed. The problem with the pulsing was that it took away from the illumination of the display. We could have settled for a combination of pulsing and always-on lights, but we decided for aesthetic reasons on having them all always-on. We don’t want this display to look tacky like a cheap electronic toy.

Above the electronics and lights is the layer of mirrored shards. I’ve found that a circular saw is very adept at cutting the mirror without leaving too much of a nasty edge. It helps to have the mirrored side down resting on the table otherwise you sometimes chip off the mirroring.

After almost chopping my hand off in an absent-minded moment, I’m now very wary of putting my fingers anywhere near the blade. Do not cross your hands ever when working with a circular saw!!! Also do not for any reason put your hands in the line of the saw, even if the saw is retracted and nowhere near your hand – if the saw catches on the material you’re cutting, it will throw the material backwards and jump forwards and cut off your fingers!!!! The laws of momentum at work against your fingers.

Thanks to the advice at Canal Plastic and Industrial Plastics – both of Chinatown, I’m using Methyl Chloride as the adhesive to bond the mirror to the clear plexi platform it rests on. Originally I had experimented with Weld-on (i believe #16 – see previous blog posts), but found it too gooey and noticeable. A more viscous adhesive works better with the look I’m going for. Methyl Chloride is very nice to work with – you can drip it on the edge of the plexi, and it will flow evenly down the rest of the edge without much intervention. I’ve found it to be surprisingly strong even with little contact area between pieces.

A pair of LEDs passes through the mirror layer on to the “glorifier” – the base the perfume bottle rests on. I’m waiting for the top glorifier/plexi/magnifier case to throw on top of it all. Damn lazy subcontractors. Stay tuned…

The perfume is called Angel, and its promotional materials make use of a universe metaphor – the product universe with bottles of perfume in the shape of stars of various sizes.

After suggesting various high-tech displays that react to the approach of a potential customer, we settled on a simple display with a spinning light underneath shards of a shattered mirror. Above this stands the magnanimous bottle of parfum. This is all enclosed within a plexi box with big magnifying glasses on all sides.

So far, my designs revolve around the use of a servo to rotate back and forth underneath mirrored plexi shards. The intent is to light up the edges of the plexi as a light rotates underneath it. The servo and lights are controlled by a PIC chip which takes turns pulsing the servo and four individual groups of lights. This simulates continuous lighting and moving of the servo adequately well. The lights fade in and out a semi-random fashion while moving to keep the display interesting.

My technique is to use superbright LEDs that fit into holes drilled in the arms of a cross attached to the servo. There are 3 LEDs per arm of the cross, so 12 LEDs.

In trying out different designs for the mirror shards, I’ve found that using clear plexi as a base underneath them does not hide the servo/light mechanism adequately. The lights can be seen directly from the top, no matter how well I try to conceal them.

A great technique I’ve worked out is to glue the mirrored pllexi shards to a clear plexi base (using Weld-on #16 – very nice!). I wait for this to dry, then turn the whole thing upside-down. This allows me to see exactly where the bottom edges of the mirrored plexi are touching the clear plexi base. Using strips of masking tape, I cover the bottom of the clear plexi wherever I see the mirrored plexi touching it on the other side. Then I spray-paint the bottom side so that everything is opaque except where the masking tape is. I rip of the masking tape, and there I have nice transparent areas underneath the edge of the mirrored shards.

One note is that I’m using 1/4″ clear plexi, which is a little thick for this technique. From a side angle, you can see the 1/4″ gap between the opening in the sray paint on the bottom-side of the clear plexi base and the bottom edge of the mirrored plexi. 1/8″ would probably work better. Either way, it’s a great solution.