Glass Cactus Lights Commission

Elizabeth Symington
Glass Cactus Lights, 2011
3.5’ and 7’ tall
glass containers, black, elastic cord and LEDs
Installed at The Open Matt martial arts school and music venue, Oakland, CA

What are Cactus Lights? 

How to drill glass

I needed to drill glass to wire these hanging lights that I call Cactus Lights. I couldn’t find a step-by-step guide on how to drill glass; not at the hardware store, the stained glass store or on the Internet. I kept stumbling across vague information that always included diamond bits and water, but no specifics.

I was very nervous about proceeding without directions, because I kept envisioning the glass shattering and scaring my face for life. Needless to say, I am as pretty as ever. My face is fine. I didn't get cut even once.

After many hours of drilling, this is what I learned. I hope this how-to will save you time.

You’ll need:

• Glass that needs drilling (duh)
• Sharpie
• Glass gloves
• Safety glasses
• Ear plugs
• Dust mask (Don’t skimp on this. Inhaling glass dust causes very serious health problems.)
• Eye dropper with water (Label for drilling only. Glass dust will be sucked back into the dropper.)
• Rag
• Dremel or drill
• Diamond drill bits

Drill:

Using a sharpie, mark where you want to drill the hole. Depending on how much money you spend on your diamond drill bits, determines how quickly they will cut through the glass. I picked up a set of 50 for about $20 on harbor freight tools.com, and they take about 15 minutes to drill ¼” of glass. I would like to invest in higher quality bits, so that it will take only a minute or two to drill 1/4”.

The shaft on the diamond drill bits can only handle so many rpm, so set your drill or dremel accordingly. You don’t want to snap off the bit while drilling, hence the importance of safety glasses. At first I also wore a face shield, but then it was too difficult looking through that and safety glasses to keep tabs on where I was drilling.

Put on your gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs and dust mask. I worked at a table in my studio, with a chair that was at a comfortable height, since how I knew I was going to be there 15 plus minutes without moving.

Using the eye dropper, drip some water onto the sharpie mark on the glass. Keeping the bit perpendicular to the glass, start drilling. As the water flies away, add more with the eye dropper. Be sure to label the eye dropper so that it doesn’t get used for anything other than assisting in drilling, because powdered glass will be sucked back into the dropper. When the glass powder starts to build up around the hole use the rag to clean it out of there.

Once you’ve drilled your hole, it’s time for the victory dance! It really is empowering to have the tools and know how to drill a solid and yet fragile material. You’ll start noticing glass everywhere and thinking about how long it would take to drill. Have fun!

This is one of the two Cactus Lights that needed to be drilled so I could wire them and turn them into hanging lights. This wine bottle is a little over 2 feet tall.

One of the many shapes of diamond drill bits. I liked the flat bottomed bits the best versus the conical shaped bits. With the extra surface area, they drilled faster. For just this wine bottle I had about 1 inch of glass to drill, which took an hour with my cheap bits. Have I sold you on the nicer bits yet?

This enormous wine bottle had a conveniently concave shaped bottle to keep the water from flinging away while I was drilling.

For more photos of the glass Cactus Lights, check out these installation photos. The wine bottle strand is the shorty! It’s sister is 7 feet tall.

Post Game Show:

Start off by drilling some tests to take the pressure off from having to make a perfect hole the first time around.

Another set up idea is to use a fish tank to catch the excess water. It was suggested to me to use the fish tank motor to circular the water. I think this would be particularly helpful when there is lots of drilling to do.

I tried a glass/masonry bit that didn’t have any abrasive diamonds attached to it and it shattered several glasses. It seems like diamond bits are the way to go.

If you’re drilling a super thin glass bottle, you can put a wooden support in the inside, right on the other side of where you are drilling. This should help prevent the weight of the drill and bit from breaking the glass.

If you have to drill for a while, be mindful to take breaks when your mind starts to wander. You need to stay completely focused while using the drill. Also, be aware if the motor starts to heat up and give it a rest if that happens.

Even though I used water and drilled glass into a power, it wasn’t very messy drilling glass. I obviously didn’t do this around food, but clean up was simple.

first triplet of the lights are born

The first of three new Cactus Lights is finished and installed!
This is the shortie at 3.5 feet tall.
The lime green container at the top is a wine bottle that goes up to my hip.

Photo courtesy of my Sensei, Matt Lucas.
Check out The Open Matt- my Cactus Light is hanging in Matt's music room.
I love trading art for kung fu!

What are Cactus Lights?

Cactus Lights are hanging lights that have either glass or plastic repurposed containers for lampshades that are then shoved inside of a black, knit matrix.

After knitting the black cord into a giant sock like shape, I color the glass containers, drill holes in them for the electrical and for the support structure to go through, and then wire the lights with LEDs and hook them up to a touch pad.

Each light that I've crafted is unique to fit its home. All of the elements are variable: the length, the scale of the containers, the number of strands per cluster, the theme, the color of light… The light is soothing, like sitting around a Christmas tree.

More about the Cactus Lights:

Andrew’s 12 foot tall Cactus Lights
Glass Cactus Light Commission 
More of my colorful art, on my portfolio site, ElizabethSymington.com.

progress on glass Cactus Lights

Since 2009 I've created different versions of my Cactus Light. It's a simple design that is like a Chinese Finger trap game. I knit an elastic tube and shove containers for lampshades inside of the tube. When they are hanging the objects stay in place, just like when you are pulling really hard to get your finger out of the trap, making it more lodged in place. I then wire the lights with LEDs and hook up to a dimmer touch pad.

My current commission for Cactus Lights are the first of their kind- I'm using glass containers for the first time instead of plastic. That has brought on all sorts of fun challenges to solve. These are photos of the progress for the glass Cactus Lights. There will be three strings of hanging lights, the longest being 7 feet tall.




I collected glass from thrift stores and arranged them on the floor to figure out the order they would hang in.



Then I photographed them and edited out the background, to give myself a visual of what the light could look like. I played around with coloring the lights in digitally, only to find that's not how I enjoy working. I'm analog. Give me markers and paper!




The biggest challenge was locating a supplier for the elastic cord, since how I had run out of the cord I found from a thrift store back in 2009. After three years of looking, a seamstress, Carolyn Craft, with her wonderful industry knowledge knew exactly where to get it made. Within two weeks of talking to her I bought the fabric and had it cut into cord. The three year long search was over! Time to start knitting!




This is a mock install to see how the colors, shapes and length looked in the space. It was super helpful working on-site as apposed to my home studio. I could get a feel for the room and what would work in there.




The lights will hang in between three of the windows on the left. The space is a music room with the world's most comfy love sac (aka enormous beanbag like chair that is stuffed with memory foam). The comfy sac is just out of picture on the right. I'm going to enjoy lying in it looking at the lights.





I used rags and tshirts as reference for figuring out the color scheme. It helped immensely to see the colors instead of imagining them.




Playing around with the idea of going monochromatic.




My home studio- WOW! Talk about a disaster. You can read my mental state and gauge how busy I am by the tidiness of my home. Those of you that know me, know I keep my house very clean.




Note the orange handled pliers on the left. They put the wine bottle into scale. The wine bottle is huge and ridiculously heavy, but oh so cool looking.




Another challenge for this project was learning how to drill holes into glass, so I can wire and hang them. Thanks to the local stained glass store and one of my engineering friends, Paul Franke, I learned that the trick is to use a dremel with a diamond drill bit and water. The water is to keep the glass from getting airborne and into your lungs. I found an eye dropper works best for adding water. I tired using a hose. I ended up very, very cold.





I rarely justify buying tools, but for this project I bought a diamond drill bit set of 50 bits. My cheapo bits were about $20 and they take about 15 minutes to drill a hole 1/8" deep. As opposed to expensive bits, they take a minute to drill a hole. I look forward to upgrading.




After the mock install, I took my color scheme ideas and translated them into marker drawings.




Then I spray painted sample containers, so I can then mix and match and see which colors vibrate off of each other. The trick to lighting design is making a striking light when it is on and when it is off.

As for the wiring, I am playing around with more compact LEDs then I've used in the past. I'm not sure which ones I will go with, but there's time to figure it out.

The plan is to finish these glass Cactus Lights over the next few weeks. Thanks for reading. I'll keep you posted on the progress.


In case you want to look at pretty pictures, check out these photos of Cactus Lights from 2009-Present.

Make your own Shrinky Dinks

After calling around for shrinky dinks and only finding precut shapes, I discovered online that you can easily make your own! Instead of buying the expensive plastic sheets, you can use plastic containers that are either #5 or #6.

You can use markers or if you want to decorate them with pencils first roughen up the surface with sandpaper.

click here to learn how make your own shrinky dinks



I drew this Goliath frog onto a thin sheet of plastic and shrunk it in the oven, making it 1/3 the original size. Shrinking the plastic also makes the plastic super compact and thick (and a tad brittle).

You should look up the Goliath frog. He's the world's biggest frog measuring 2 feet long and of course he's endangered. He's too cool to not be collected. ;-( He is also a delicacy, hence the miniature knives and forks circling him.

smile

I found this on Facebook. Not sure who to credit. It made me smile.

August Happenings in the Studio

Welcome back to the monthly post on what I experienced as a visual artist over the last 31 days.

Sitting down and reviewing all that went on, shows me why I feel frazzled. Being involved and around so much art is excited, but also tiring. August was so productive, that it feels like it was months long, which reminds me that I prefer to be involved in fewer activities. We’ll see how I pace myself for September.

It is also apparent in reviewing August’s accomplishments, that it wouldn’t of been possible without asking for help. My life is so blessed with wonderful friends. I love my community of friends and look forward to meeting more creative, health centered, kind hearted folks.

Visited The Oakland Museum of California

Even though I’ve visited most of the San Francisco museums multiple times, just this month I went to my first East Bay museum. At the Oakland Museum of California I was welcomed by the above art installation of chaos and order of hanging chairs on the blackboard wall. I even ran into one of my fencing teammates from college and thoroughly enjoyed the museum. It is such a treasure! Keep in mind the first Sundays are free!!!

Just a Matter of Time

Paul Kos, 1990

Of the history, art and John Muir exhibits, this mixed media installation kept me still the longest. I heard the cuckoo clocks before seeing the installation. It reminded me of my childhood in bringing back a cuckoo clock from Germany. After reading the label I learned that it is about the inevitable fall of communist Russia, hence the sickles hanging from the chains.

Constructed and Painted a Pyramid Burning Man

The theme for Burning Man this year is “Rites of Passage,” which is why my friend Paul wanted his tent to be a pyramid. When I was little I’d write in hieroglyphics, so when I heard Paul was making a 20 foot tall pyramid I volunteered!

Several of us distressed the tarp using white and silver paint, cut it to size, then painted hieroglyphics using glow-in-the-dark paint.

We painted one entire side with glow-in-the-dark paint, then painted the above design of Anubis using white paint. That way the design would be black at night, with a glowing background, making it a reverse hieroglyphic.

I had an absolute blast working on this project. I look forward to seeing photos of the tent set up at Burning Man.

Watched a movie at a 70 year old Theater

Two Sacramento friends drove out here to see Dr. Strangelove with me at the art deco style Paramount Theater. Before the movie there was live organ music, a news clip from the time the movie came out, a cartoon and a raffle involved a giant spinning wheel. The theater was stunning, the company as always was great and the movie wasn’t disturbing like the other Kubrick film that I’d seen - A Clockwork Orange.

Checked out an Open Studio

I went to an art opening at a warehouse in Emeryville that showcased lots of artist, including makers of bamboo bicycles (they are so pretty!!). I was there to check out a group show that Erin Johnson put together. She had a hotel room that she wasn’t using, so she invited local artists to each make something in the room over a period of 24 hours. Check out the Unimpressionable Project to see the videos, dances, photos…that were created in the plain Jane hotel room.

Earth sticker

As of last month I’ve taken over filling the orders for the earth art stickers and tshirts for the artist/creator Philip Krohn. I keep seeing more and more of the sticker, which is so cool. A recent customer told us that this commonality in the sticker brought together a couple who were e-dating.

Going on four years I am blessed to be Philip’s key studio assistant. If you look at the tent image that is above the yellow bike, in the background you’ll see the Oracle, which I helped construct out of 500+ oil jugs.

Plan of Attack for Restringing the Bouncy Ball Curtain

Over the last year the 7’ x 5’ bouncy ball curtain has been walked through numerous times, making it sag. It needs a face lift! The curtain is made up of 900 bouncy balls and crazy straws that are strung onto fishing line. The original design had the fishing line double back at the end of the string. What happened after several months, was that the line started coming undone. I thought that was because of the weight that was resting on the bottom bouncy ball.

So I added a jewelry crimp to hold the line in place and strung on a washer to prevent the bouncy ball from splitting from the tension caused by the fishing line. What ended up happening is that the washer didn’t stay in place, some of the crimps came undone and space was magically appearing between the straws like before. It was then that I accepted that even though I used 50 pound fishing line, the space between the straws was not caused by the line becoming undone at the bottom, but from the fishing line stretching.

The latest plan of attack, thanks to two engineering friends, is to use a nonstretching 50 pound fishing line, and to use grommets to prevent the ball from splitting from the line. And since how everything needs to be restrung, I can then run extra line through the ball so it goes through it twice, holding the grommet in place.

Another problem with the curtain was that the regular straws were splitting from the fishing line. I’m going to fix this by using the stems of the crazy straws, since how they are a rigid plastic. I have the grommets, the fishing line and about 200 more crazy straws. I am hunting down about 400 more straws, then it will be time to have a restringing party! I also learned about alibaba, which is a direct connection to manufactures worldwide, making it easier to buy materials in bulk.

Making interactive art that involved different materials takes lots of tests. I am confident that this latest design will solve the challenges that the curtain has been experiencing. I’m excited to have this figured out, so I can confidently make and sell more of them.

My Portfolio Website is Finally Editable Again

Thanks to a super smart and generous friend, Jon, I can upload images to my portfolio website, ElizabethSymington.com. It’s been almost two years since being able to add new photos to my online portfolio. Jon fixed the captions so that they would always be on, and he redirected the common misspelt version of name ElizabethSimington.com to my site. And, he forwarded my business email address, so I can now check my personal and work accounts in the same place.

I feel very spoiled and lucky to have such a beautiful site and for friends like Jon to help me when I get stuck with the technology. Since how I now have access to my site, I also updated my resume and recut my demo reel. It is such a relief having a complete online portfolio of my art installations, ceramics and hanging lights.

MISC.
As you can see I still have more to share, but for the sake of everyone’s time, here’s the synopsis of the other exciting art adventures:

• Local artist, Ricardo Pelaez, contacted me and asked if I’d be interested assisting with future projects or even possibly collaborating together. Ricardo combines his background in architecture and etching to create beautiful site-specific art installations. His art is very well made and thoughtful. I’m grateful that I got to meet him and to see his art in person.
• For the sake of learning more and for networking purposes I’m taking a class on nutrition and one on the history of environmental art and what it means to be an eco artist. I am so incredibly impressed with these classes and instructors, that there will be future posts about what I’m learning and applying to my life.
• I had a ladies night where Jen and I sewed two throw pillows. Together we figured out how to put in a zipper! I hadn’t done that since both of my Great Grandmothers showed me how to sew on a machine when I was about 9 years old.
• Because of this art blog, the director of the Eco Arts Award found me and invited me to apply. I passed the competition information onto my eco arts class and marked the upcoming deadline on my calendar.
• Between textbooks, recommendations from friends and my own nerdiness, I have added many more books to the 2011 booklist.
• Progress on the Cactus Light commission is coming along. I’ve learned my lesson from the bouncy ball curtain by asking professions how they’d proceed, before wasting time and money hunting for the solution on my own. I’ve networked with many glass artists and electricians, learning how to more efficiently make these 7’ tall hanging lights. In the efforts of working smart and not hard, I bought a hand crank circular knitting machine and diamond drill bits for making holes into glass.
  

Photos taken while biking…they made me smile!

Thank you for persevering and making it to the end. I try to keep my stories short, but this month there were lots of little things going on.

If your eyes aren’t tired, you can read July’s H.I.T.S. or surf around the Happenings In The Studio Table of Contents, which dates back to Jan. 2009.

Have a wonderful month! See you October 1st, 2011 for the next Happenings In The Studio!