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.

Godar Blot Skull Pins

Godar Blot skull pins – hardwood inlay skull pins from white oak, walnut and, padauk. The white oak is dominant on one pin and the walnut is dominant on the other.

I didn’t post the wood inlay Mastodon logo pins I made a couple years ago but, they came out so well that I periodically think of other things that would make good pin designs. In the spirit of the season and, since I rarely get around to the “spooky season” projects I envision these days, I made some skull pins inspired by my old Godar Blot design.

There are two variants: one where white oak is dominant, with walnut for the eyes and nose and, padauk for the spiral on the forehead and, another where walnut is dominant with white oak for the eye and nose and, padauk for the spiral.

I was making these for friends and family but, I ended up making a few extras. They are up in the shop, if you want one (light or dark).

Godar Blot skull pins – hardwood inlay skull pins from white oak, walnut and, padauk. The white oak is dominant on one pin and the walnut is dominant on the other.
Handmade wood inlay white oak, walnut and, padauk hardwood skull pins with some Celtic style.
Godar Blot skull pin – white oak skull with inlaid walnut eyes and nose with a padauk spiral on the forehead.
Handmade wood inlay white oak, walnut and, padauk hardwood skull pin with some Celtic style.
Godar Blot skull pin – walnut skull with inlaid white oak eyes and nose with a padauk spiral on the forehead.
Handmade wood inlay white oak, walnut and, padauk hardwood skull pin with some Celtic style.
Godar Blot skull pins – hardwood inlay skull pins from white oak, walnut and, padauk. The white oak is dominant on one pin and the walnut is dominant on the other. A bottle cap slightly smaller than the pins is provided for scale.
Handmade wood inlay white oak, walnut and, padauk hardwood skull pins with some Celtic style. Bottle cap for scale.
Godar Blot skull pins – hardwood inlay skull pins from white oak, walnut and, padauk. The white oak is dominant on one pin and the walnut is dominant on the other. A bottle cap slightly smaller than the pins is provided for scale and, the light pin is held between an index finger and thumb.
Handmade wood inlay white oak, walnut and, padauk hardwood skull pins with some Celtic style. Bottle cap and fingers for scale.

Two minute making-of video:

Reputation Tracker

Reputation tracker - a wooden box with a list of names on the face, each with a row of holes that accept cribbage pegs.

Kira of Cryptid Dicecraft asked me to make a “reputation tracker” for their Victorian era fae-themed table top role playing game (TTRPG). I made a few changes and expanded on their rough design to make this.

Overall, it is 10cm square and about 3.2cm tall and, made of walnut hardwood. After a fair amount of sanding, I finished it with a few layers of wipe-on polyurethane, lightly sanded between layers.

The bottom is a box to contain the cribbage pegs used for tracking and, connects to the top with magnets.

The engrave on the face is filled using silver acrylic paint. I glued a piece of nice black card stock to the back of the top piece. I lined the lower box and put a gasket between the parts with cork.

I took some photos on my tarnished silver tea service and, made a short making-of video.

Reputation tracker open with pegs in some of the holes.
Reputation Tracker
Reputation tracker - a wooden box with a list of names on the face, each with a row of holes that accept cribbage pegs.
Reputation Tracker
Back side of the reputation tracker showing the Evermore ambigram engraved in the center.
Back side of the reputation tracker showing the Evermore ambigram engraved in the center.
Reputation Tracker open with pegs.
Reputation Tracker open with pegs.
The Reputation Tracker open and empty.
Reputation Tracker (open)
The inside surfaces of the Reputation Tracker - the top backed with a matte black cardstock and the bottom lined with cork.
The insides of the reputation tracker.
Reputation tracker sanded but, not finished.
Reputation tracker sanded but, not finished.