Small Light-Up Stand

A one-inch clear acrylic cube sits in a small square layered walnut stand, which lights the cube and the 42 millimeter 20-sided die sitting on top of it from below. The die is a swirl of two shades of blue with metallic copper numbers. Shown against a defocused background of handmade paper with fiber inclusions. Side view.

I was thinking about ways to get a little bit of extra light to the bottoms of some small objects I have been photographing recently (particularly dice), and to get light passing through translucent objects in a way that would highlight them. I envisioned something that used a piece of clear acrylic to transmit the light to the subject while not having an opaque base in the way.

This prototype is the result. The base is several layers of laser-cut walnut, glued together and finished. There is a cavity for the light and a lip that supports a piece of diffuser material and a 1-inch acrylic cube.

The electronics are pretty hacky. I recently designed some 3D-printed lights that hold LIR1254 rechargeable cells, a Chibitronics Circuit Sticker, and a tiny surface-mount switch for use in making rechargeable versions of my paper icosahedra. This is a variant of those with three Circuit Stickers (for more light) and the switch mounted upside down  (for access through a cut-out in the base). This could be done more elegantly with a custom circuit board, but this seemed good for a prototype.

Since I have only made opaque Jesmonite dice to date, I used some resin dice sent to me by friends to try it with translucent objects. The darker purple one is from Rosey Cricket, and the lighter one is from Silverleaf Dice. If you like dice, you should go check out all the wonderful pieces they make.

A one-inch clear acrylic cube sits in a small square layered walnut stand, which lights the cube and the 42 millimeter 20-sided die sitting on top of it from below. The die is a swirl of two shades of blue with metallic copper numbers. Shown against a defocused background of handmade paper with fiber inclusions. Side view. A one-inch clear acrylic cube sits in a small square layered walnut stand, which lights the cube and the 42 millimeter 20-sided die sitting on top of it from below. The die is a swirl of two shades of blue with metallic copper numbers. Shown against a defocused background of handmade paper with fiber inclusions. Three-quarter top-down view. Side view of a one-inch clear acrylic cube sitting in a small square layered walnut stand. The stand lights the cube from below. There is a bottle cap with a Celtic spiral design engraved on it leaning against the stand to show scale. Shown against a de-focused background of handmade paper with fiber inclusions. Three-quarter top-down view of a one-inch clear acrylic cube sitting in a small square layered walnut stand. The stand lights the cube from below, but the light is off in this image. Shown against a background of handmade paper with fiber inclusions. Small light-up stand with a standard 22mm 20-sided resin die in shades of deep purple with gold flakes and numbers. Small light-up stand with a standard 22mm 20-sided resin die in shades of purple with gold numbers. Top-down view of the base of the small light-up stand with the acrylic cube and diffuser removed to show the electronics: three Chibitronics Circuit Stickers arranged in a trefoil and wired together. Bottom view of the small light-up stand. A small square of very thin plywood fills the opening, and has a cut-out to allow access to the tiny on/off switch. Electronics removed from the base of the small light-up stand showing three Chibitronics Circuit Stickers wired to a small rechargeable coin cell, stuck to the bottom panel with putty.