Glowing City Sculpture

This sculpture uses a unique lighting diffusion system and affordable materials to emulate a futuristic, alien city.

• tracing paper
• white gel pen
• red pastels
• tape
• Bristol board, one sheet
• scissors
• x-acto knife
• clear plastic or glass bottle
• hot glue and gun
• laser pointer
• red jello

The first step to creating your city is to define the towers that make it up. Start by cutting strips of tracing paper a few inches long; varying length is fine. Then, outline patterns of windows, doors, or other architectural details on each strip using the white gel pen. Small cut-outs with the xacto knife can help emphasize certain details. Then, use the red pastel to create a gradient on one side of each strip.

Cut small strips of your Bristol board, and hot glue them into cones and cylinders of varying heights. Mine range from about 1/2 an inch to 2 inches tall. Then, wrap each Bristol cone in the colored tracing paper from step 1, using hot glue to secure them into cone and/or spiral shapes. Aim for 5-6 small cones, and 3-4 larger towers. Save one long strip for the central tower.

Use tightly wrapped tape or a rubber band to permanently hold down the button on the laser pointer. Then, use the reserved piece of tracing paper to wrap it into a tower shape.

Cut a large rectangle of tracing paper, and color in with the red pastel. Then, hot glue it to the bottom of your bottle. Finally, prepare your red jello in the bottle according to the instructions on the package, and let set.

Use hot glue to arrange all your towers, plus the central tower, on top of your jello-filled bottle. Turn off the lights and be amazed by the glow!