Solar System in My Pocket

I wanted to make something for the 'Pocket Sized' contest and was inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 2019 if you're keeping track). I love to reuse junk in my projects so this was the perfect opportunity!

I started with a used Nivea hand cream container and superglued a coiled copper wire to the base and lid. I used Washi tape to decorate the outside and also for each planet and the sun on the inside.

I attempted to keep the size and distance of the planets in proportion and realistic but ahem, the tape was a bit frustrating and I kinda gave up on my original idea of perfect proportion. Also, each planet could not have it's own orbit due to the one-piece construction. I did have a nice variety of tape so I tried to stay as true as possible to the surface appearance of each planet, although I could have given better representation to Earth.

This was a fun project and you could make it far more detailed and accurate or more interpretive if you wanted. It was my first Instructable and I had a great time with it!

Here's the video in case I didn't embed it correctly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzpfX-k-ZLI

I started with an empty hand cream container.

I glued a hand-coiled copper wire into the bottom and let it dry. Then I super-glued the other end into the top of the container.

I attempted to keep the size and distance of the planets in proportion and realistic but ahem, the tape was a bit frustrating and I kinda gave up on my original idea of perfect proportion. Also, each planet could not have it's own orbit due to the one-piece construction. I used a couple pieces of tape for the Sun in the center of the bottom container.

What made this part so tedious was that I had to put two pieces of tape back-to-back on the 'wrong' side to cut them, then line them up as accurately as possible on the wire. I did have a nice variety of tape so I tried to stay as true as possible to the surface appearance of each planet, although I could have given better representation to Earth. Another frustrating factor was that the tape is not really very sticky, even when tacky sides are pressed together.

I had some Washi tape that resembles Van Gogh's Starry Night and one with some moons and I thought that was a nice way to cover the outside of the container.

I wanted to make something for the 'Pocket Sized' contest and was inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 2019 if you're keeping track). I love to reuse junk in my projects so this was the perfect opportunity!

This was a fun project and you could make it far more detailed and accurate or more interpretive if you wanted. It was my first Instructable and I had a great time with it! I can't wait to do another Instructable!