Light Up Obelisk of Wokeness

Make your own light up Obelisk of Wokeness.

You can make a monument to anything.

This is just a paper mache shell which is lit up from the inside.

I built a papercraft model of the Washington Monument to be the starting form for the project.

Likewise, you can start out with an object like a power drill, hammer, doesn't have to be a tool... and wrap it in plastic wrap to keep the paper mache from sticking.

Paper mache the object with torn up pieces of plain paper towel. The pieces will meld better without the straight cut edges of the paper towel. I've found paper towels makes a better material instead of sheet paper to form what is essentially a lampshade. It has dimensionality to give it strength and diffuses light well. You will should have at least 3 or 4 layers to make the paper mache object rigid after the glue dries.

I just applied the paper towel pieces with full strength glue and then applied more glue overall to make sure all the surfaces were saturated with glue. The shape will sag saturated with glue so check back often and reshape as it dries.

You can use anything to light up the insides.

I used my Adafruit Circuit Playgound Express board with a Neopixel strip attached from another project. Any microcontroller with LEDs will do.

I had a piece of box cardboard to use as the base of my monument.

I used some construction paper to give it some landscaping detail on my architectural style model/diorama.

Now make your own.

Enjoy!