First, I don't like to just stick them in the eye sockets of a prop. Bare LEDs often look like little point-sources of light, and they fairly scream "electronic gadget". This is especially true of the red ones which are commonly used in mass-market Halloween props.
In addition, some LEDs are very bright. Visible light LEDs are unlikely to cause eye damage, because people tend to shield themselves from painfully bright light. But black light LEDs are both powerful and nearly invisible; people might might have a spotlight aiming at them and not know it.
I like to put LEDs behind something that will diffuse the light or break up the light into something that looks less "electronic". There are LEDs with milky "diffused" cases; that helps some.
The
Kosher salt crystals
on the right diffuse the light into a glowing patch that is brightest over the LED,
and slowly gets dimmer over distance.
The plastic shard
beads
on the left give a random broken-up effect.
For uniformity, I used a talking Boris skull for all experiments. Boris isn't too bad as shipped. The manufacturer could have painted the eye sockets flat black, which would have been better when not activated, but would have emphasized the pinpoint light source LEDs when lit. Instead, they painted the eye sockets a glossy dark brown. This causes reflections that make it look a lot better.
To conduct the experiments, I merely poured loose material into the eye sockets and snapped a picture. In real-life, some sort of adhesive would be required to hold the material in place. Material with small particle sizes would probably need to be saturated with some thin adhesive material like super glue. In the case of material with rough surfaces, like the Kosher salt, this would have a tendency to fill in the rough places on the surface and reduce the light diffusion (i.e. make the salt more "clear").
The various test materials, along with a bag of catnip, were purchased with money from Doktor Calamari's generous donation to the Wolfstone tip jar.
The tumbled rock crystal on the left gives a random, organic feel.
Unearthly, but not artificial.
We used this for our
Boris modifications.
Just for illustration, this is a small gazing "crystal ball".
We have found various styles of toy kaleidoscopes, both cylindrical and conical.
The really cheap ones don't use loose material to make moving patterns or use mirrors to replicate the image.
They are simply faceted plastic lenses in a holder.
We used this for our
flickering gargoyle eyes.
You can also get the insect look from faceted plastic "gems".
We used this for our giant spider eyes.
The first project that I have seen to use this suggestion and post pictures is the Corpsified Blucky Goblin, by Eric Bonzell.
These pictures from Eric's web site show the marble eyes mounted in a plastic baboon skull.
Eric notes:
Please see Eric's web site (http://webs.lanset.com/bonzell) for more information on his technique and pictures.
In private correspondence, Doktor Calamari remarked that when the UV LED is directly behind the marble, in a line of sight with the viewer, there is a bluish spot. He sent me some vaseline glass marbles to experiment with, and I took pictures of the vaseline glass marble illuminated at different angles with respect to the viewer. [The angles are rough. Illumination is provided by a keychain LED using a Cree UV chip LED.]
The picture on the right shows the blue/purple bloom that results when the LED is in line with the eye.
The picture on the left is the side view.
The picture on the right is what you see when the light enters the marble at an angle.
The picture on the left shows the side view.
The picture on the right is what you see when the light enters the marble from the bottom,
perpendicular to the view angle.
The picture on the left shows the side view.
Here are the results of some experiments done with common, inexpensive mineral salts available in the form of tiny crystals.
If the salt crystals are small, you get a smooth diffusion effect. If the salt crystals are large, and mostly clear, you get more random variations.
The following pictures show coarse Kosher cooking salt.
From the store, made by Morton.
This is just enough coarse Kosher cooking salt to cover the LED.
More.
Eye socket not full of coarse Kosher cooking salt, but the light is hard to see.
The following pictures show coarse Epsom Salts.
House brand, purchased at Stater Brother's grocery store.
This is just enough coarse Epsom Salts to cover the LED.
More.
Eye socket nearly full of coarse Epsom Salts.
Here are the results of some
experiments
done with various size, shape, and material beads,
all from my local
Michaels.
Panacer item #70601,
from Michaels.
I like the effect, but the marbles are too big.
The following pictures show 4x7mm Pony beads.
Western Trimming Corp, Westrim Crafts #2837-ZE-029,
from Michaels.
This is just enough 4x7mm Pony beads to cover the LED.
More.
More.
Eye socket full of 4x7mm Pony beads.
The following pictures show 8mm faceted beads.
Western Trimming Corp, Westrim Crafts #2999-ZE-029,
from Michaels.
This is just enough 8mm faceted beads to cover the LED.
More.
Eye socket full of 8mm faceted beads.
The following pictures show shards of clear plastic sold as decorative "beads".
SKU #296290,
from Michaels.
They carry similar bags of large and small shards.
These are the smaller of the two.
This is just enough plastic shard "beads" to cover the LED.
About half full.
Eye socket full of plastic shard "beads".
Diana particularly likes this effect.
It looks like a glowing bed of coals.
Here's a piece of the panel in a crackle-finish pattern.
This is what you get, just holding a piece of the crackle-finish panel
in front of Boris's face.
#12/510 G-I-D BOUNCING BALLS (1", 25mm) - $3.95 for 4 dozen [August 2004]
[photo from OTC web site]
#12/693 G-I-D BOUNCING EYEBALLS (1-3/8", 35mm) - $5.95 for 1 dozen [August 2004]
[photo from OTC web site]
#39/1111 G-I-D BOUNCING BALLS, assorted colors (1", 25mm) - $8.95 for 1 gross [August 2004]
[photo from OTC web site]
#12/516 G-I-D MINI BOUNCING BALLS, assorted colors (3/4", 19mm) - $4.95 for 1 gross [August 2004]
[photo from OTC web site]
In August 2004, I was experimenting with various diffusing materials for creature eyes and decided to try hot glue again. To my pleasant surprise, Frank at http://www.born2haunt.com had beaten me to it.
These pictures from Frank's web site show the eyes made from hemispherical moldings of
hot-melt glue.
Please see Frank's web site (http://www.born2haunt.com) for more information and pictures.
I should add that hot-melt glue sticks are available in a variety of opaque colors, glitter, even glow-in-the-dark. I have seen translucent hot glue that ranges from ivory, to milky, to almost clear.
I have a string of lights, with each lamp covered by plastic frogs like this.
The material is some sort of translucent plastic beads that are poured into a mold and heated to fuse them together.
I wish I had a source of this material!
(Other than sacrificing the frogs, of course.)
[this page]
Thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome.
![[back]](../_aCommon/l_hand.gif){kind=small}
. . .
![[paper and pen]](../_aCommon/an-feather.gif){kind=small}
. . .
![[tip jar]](../_aCommon/icon_TipJar.gif){kind=icon}
