DIY Tablescapes: a LED & Foam Sculptural Centerpiece

For this project I created this illuminated rock-sculpture centerpiece as a gift for my mom. The sculpture base is joint-compounted foam and reindeer moss, supported by a wire hanger framework, lit by a Neopixel button LED that is controlled by a hidden Adafruit Gemma M0 microcontroller.

Think about the desired size of your rocks and cut it out of the foam. I used a bandsaw, but you can use any cutting tool of your choice!

Sand the edges of your cut foam pieces until you reach your desired shape.

Use a small spatula to cover your rock pieces in joint compound. Thinner layers will dry faster, butpersonally I enjoy the texture found in thicker layers.

I did three layers, letting each dry for about 24-48 hours befor applying another quote.

Hot glue reindeer moss to your rocks to introduce the natural element

I created my Arduino circuit using:

Adafruit Gemma M0

NeoPixel Button LED (or any single NeoPixel)

3 wires

AAA battery source

Wiring

Connect your Gemma M0 to the NeoPixel Button:

Gemma 3Vo → NeoPixel Vout (power)

Gemma D1 → NeoPixel Din (data)

Gemma GND → NeoPixel GND (ground)

Common mistake: after soldering my wires, the light on my Gemma would turn on but my LED would not,it was because I wired to the Dout port on my Neopixel instead of the Din and to resolder.

I hot glued over some of my wiring to prevent short circuiting and glued my Gemma to the bottom of my chosen rock.

For my final code I designed the sculpture to function as a time-based dinner invitation. Over the course of 3 hours, the LED will pulse and gradually slow down, subtly discouraging late-night eating (perfect because my mom forgets to eat dinner often).

For testing I wrote the code to work over the course of 1 minute.

I experimented with reflecting the LED light by hot gluing mirror tiles to the space beneath the rock that holds the LED and Gemma. While it didn't do what initially expected, I liked the look of the tile with the moss.

Finally, I attached my chosen vase on to the sculpture. It can be filled with water and a flower stem, my mom is an avid gardener and constantly bring in blooms from outside.