Sunday, May 31, 2009

Solar Night Light


I made one of these solar night lights for a bathroom. These would be great for a kids' room, to take camping, or probably a hundred other uses. I was inspired by this instructable for a solar jar. The nightlight is even simpler. It took just a couple of minutes to assemble.

I bought a $4 path light at Walmart. Then I took the post and shade off it. The only tool I remember using was a screwdriver. I wish I would have taken pictures to show how easy it was to take apart. Maybe I'll make another just so I can take pictures to prove the simplicity of the task.

What was left was kind of like a hockey puck with a solar panel on top and an LED protruding from the bottom. I found a glass candle holder in my candle cupboard that was the perfect size. To secure the pieces together, I used super glue. If you are worried about dropping these and breaking the glass, you could probably find a clear plastic container to use as the base.

The hardest part of using this is remembering to put it in a sunny window in the morning.

To make it more interesting, you could:
- etch the glass
- frost (faux etch) the glass
- wrap a piece of vellum around the glass
- adorn it with ribbons, etc..
- fill the glass with interesting marbles
- put star-shaped stickers on the glass, paint the glass, then carefully remove the stickers
etc.

2 comments:

Grace said...

This is awesome! I am so glad I found your blog during SMS giveaway Day!

Jerri said...

Very neat idea! Depending on the ease of taking apart the lamp, maybe the kids could do it.