How to Make a Flickering Eyes Ghost With Homemade Clay

Hello everyone, I hope whoever is reading this is doing very well.

I have been trying out home made ways of sculpting and trying different mixtures to experience interesting results by testing techniques and ways of handling the clay. One of the interesting samples I have enjoyed is clay used in sheets to make it bend, and I thought I would try to make an instructable of what I have been doing and if anyone is on the same quest for interesting mixes.

Having a bit of use for electronics, I wanted to find a similar way to make light in the form of the flickering fire, and researched and found that with the 555 timer, in astable configuration, is somehow possible. I hope you like it.

• 200 gr of white cement
• 100 gr of wheat flour
• 100 gr of white glue
• Bowl
• Airtight bag
• Popsicle sticks or anything that can be used to mix the ingredients
• Aluminum foil
• Tape measure, ruler
• Sculpting tools or some tool to give shape
• Rolling pin
• Scrapper or scissors
• Straw
• Wax paper
• Pliers
• Sandpaper (if necessary)
• White acrylic paint
• Black acrylic paint
• Brushes
• UV resin, Spray setting, Water based varnish, etc.
• UV lamp
• Optional (if resin is to be used, to clean the brush): Acetone and cotton swab
• Breadboard
• NE555
• 4 resistors 1k ohm
• 2 yellow led diodes
• 1 10nF capacitor
• 1 100uF capacitor
• 16 AWG wire
• Circuit of lights that have battery holder (to use the battery holder)
• Stripboard
• Soldering iron
• Soldering tin
• Silicon glue

In this step we will make the clay that will allow us to create figures with materials that we probably have at home. We will need:

• 200 gr of white cement
• 100 gr of wheat flour
• 100 gr of white glue
• Bowl
• Airtight bag
• Popsicle sticks or anything that can be used to mix the ingredients.

1. First add the dry/powdered ingredients: 200gr of cement and 100gr of wheat flour and mix in the bowl.
2. Add the 100 grams of white glue and mix until a uniform mixture is obtained.
3. Finally we will add water, little by little until we get a pizza dough appearance.
4. We put it in an airtight bag until we get to use it. It is necessary to avoid the entrance of air to the mixture.

Note:

The general formula of this mixture is:

X = White cement

X/2 = Wheat flour

X/2 = White glue

With the measure I made, I got 466 gr of moldable clay. I don't have a measure of the amount of water I used, because it is very much by eye.

In this step, we will prepare a surface that will allow us to keep the figure of the ghost until it can dry and that can be put in the oven if we want the figure to dry that way. We will have the following materials:

• Aluminum foil
• Tape measure, ruler.

1. We will take a piece of aluminum foil and crumple it to give it an elongated shape. About 8 cm high and 4 cm in diameter at the base.
2. The upper part of this paper, we will reduce it to about 1 cm less than the diameter of the base, and we will round it with our hands to make the head of the ghost.

In this step we will mold the figure of our ghost with tools and the clay we made in step 1. We will need:

• Air-drying clay from step 1
• Sculpting tools or some tool to give shape
• Rolling pin
• Scrapper or scissors
• Straw
• Wax paper
• Shape made in step 2

1. We will take a portion (in my case I took 185 gr) of homemade clay made in step 1 and we will flatten it with the help of a rolling pin, on a flat and clean surface, where we will place wax paper and on this we will put the clay. We will flatten to an approximate thickness of 5 mm.
2. Once we have the clay stretched in the form of a sheet of approximately 5 mm thick, we cut the sides to make a square, it does not have to be a perfect square.
3. Remove from the waxed paper surface and place this sheet on top of the figure made in step 2.
4. With our hands we place the sheet around this figure, and with the help of shaping tools, we will define the base as if it were a ghost with a sheet.
5. With the straw, we use the tip to mark the eyes of the ghost. The hole in the straw I used is 5 mm in diameter, this will remove the clay and the remaining holes we have left, we can put lights or LEDs in them.
6. Let air dry or put in an oven at a temperature of about 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-30 min.

Note:

Let the figure rest inside the oven turned off for 30 min or until it cools down.

In this step we will give the final details to the little ghost. The materials to be used are:

• Pliers
• Sandpaper (if necessary)
• White acrylic paint
• Black acrylic paint
• Brushes
• UV resin, Spray setting, Water based varnish
• UV lamp
• Optional (if resin is to be used, to clean the brush): Acetone and cotton swab

1. We remove the base made with aluminum foil with the help of a pair of pliers.
2. We can sand the figure a little to give it uniformity, but if you want a more rustic style, it is fine.
3. We paint with the white acrylic paint on the surface of the ghost, evenly. Let it dry.
4. After the white paint dries, we paint with the black paint on the inside of the ghost, without leaving any unpainted space.
5. We wait that the applied paint dries and finally, we will give it water varnish, resin, sealant spray, etc. Uniformly, covering the entire surface of the ghost.
6. Let it cure for several minutes.

Note: 

When using resin, for this project using a brush, a cotton swab and acetone can be used to remove the resin from the brush.

In this step, we will show the circuit assembly that allows the leds to be flickering. We will need the following:

• Breadboard
• NE555
• 4 resistors 1k ohm
• 2 yellow led diodes
• 1 10nF capacitor
• 1 100uF capacitor
• 16 AWG wire
• Circuit of lights that have battery holder (to use the battery holder)

Let's start by looking at the data sheet of the NE555 integrated circuit, since it will be the basis of the circuit.

We determine the pins and connect the components as follows:

1. Connect pin 1 to ground. Fig. 1.
2. Connect pin 4 and pin 8 to positive voltage. Fig. 2.
3. Connect from pin 5 to ground, a 10nF capacitor. Fig. 3.
4. Connect by means of a cable, pin 6 with pin 2. Fig. 4.
5. Connect an electrolytic capacitor of 100uF, from pin 1 to pin 2; placing the negative polarity of the electrolytic capacitor in pin 1, and the positive polarity in pin 2. Fig. 5.
6. Connect a 1k ohm resistor from pin 2 to pin 7. Fig. 6.
7. Connect a 1k ohm resistor from pin 7 to the positive voltage. Fig. 7.
8. Connect from pin 3 (the output pin of the 555 timer) a wire; from this wire we will connect a 1k ohm resistor and from that resistor we will connect to the anode of a led diode, and this led we finish by connecting it to ground. Fig. 8.
9. Then, from this same cable that comes out of pin 3, we will connect the cathode of another led diode and from the anode of this led diode, we connect a 1k ohm resistor that will be connected to the positive of the battery. Fig. 9.
10. From the positive and negative of the breadboard we will connect the battery that in this case I used a battery holder of decoration lights (the lights can serve for another project), since this one brings its switch.

We test the circuit with a voltage between 3 Volt to 5 Volt.

Once we have verified that it works, we can solder the circuit on a board.

In this step, we will use the configuration of the previous step to solder the electronic components to the stripboard. The materials are:

• Stripboard
• Components from the previous step and previous schematic
• Soldering iron
• Soldering tin

1. From the circuit of the previous step, tested on the breadboard, you can summarize it in a simple schematic that allows the soldering of the circuit.
2. Also, you can follow the connection instructions from the previous step.
3. We would repeat the same order only that this time, we will be soldering those unions.
4. We can add wires to each end of the LED diodes, so we can have enough slack to place them in the ghost eyes.

In this step, we will assemble the circuit to the ghost; for this we will need:

• Ghost already painted and lacquered.
• Circuit with battery holder from step 5 and 6
• Silicon glue

Glue the LEDs to the ghost's eyes.