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I wanted to have transparent sections in the lamp that let out some light as well as representing the damaged parts of the death star. I thought about using hot glue for its strength but the heat would've damaged and fused the craft foam. It might be possible to use lower temperature glue but I didn't have any to hand. Let me know if you can think of other materials that could be used! PVA glue & mold release: To seal the foam. For the release, I used a bike chain lubricant spray though some other oils should be fine.
Hook: Hanging heavy things from electrical cable is not idea. Use hooks to take the weight. A threaded tube and nuts would have been better but I couldn't find any locally. It's easier to work on the inside of the sphere if it's in halves. So first I split the ball...well actually, I dropped it accidentally and it fell apart. I took the opportunity to rip off the plastic tabs holding the sphere together otherwise it would've been annoying to take it apart later. My shell came with handy grid lines on the shell - you can always draw them if they're missing to help with the layout. Super-laser Once fixed, I shortened the exposed fibres using nail clippers so that they're less likely to be pulled out whilst grouting. Fill in the trenches Once you’re satisfied with the look of your pattern, you can paint a darker shade of paint over the whole ball. Making hollow spheres out of concrete usually involves building layers onto an inflatable ball. I wanted to build it the wrong way around - to have a pattern on the outside. It didn't seem like it would be particularly easy to do but I wanted to try anyway..I saw a transparent plastic sphere at a local shop and immediately thought of making a Death Star pendant lamp out of concrete. This was sparked by looking at a whole bunch of helpful instructables about how to make concrete pendant lights. I've also seen instructions about how to make a Hollow Concrete Sphere and about passing light using optical fibres. I wanted to combine those three concepts whilst playing around with concrete/cement. The tape will force the silicone to form weird grid patterns unless you really push it into the gaps. To get a cleaner boundaries, I pushed the silicone from the centre of the mound outwards. More tape Who hasn't dreamed of owning a half-destroyed battle station made of concrete that functions as a light? Anyone? Okay, so it's not exactly practical but it was fun to try to something new. The closer the tape is to the surface of the shell, the more visible it will be when the light shines through it. I didn't cover the deep-damages sections (areas with the hot-glue mounds) with tape yet. Craft Foam: for marking trench-ish shapes. I've tried using oil-based clay but found that stuff hard to remove from the concrete once set.
Fiba Tape: Alkali-resistant tape to add tensile strength to concrete. The grey grid pattern shown underneath the transparent sections should also make it look a bit like the building structure. After searching for some reference pictures for Death Star 2 from Star Wars Episode VI, I sketched out with a sharpie where the damaged sections should be. There's a line of damage that runs across the entire front (below the super-laser) and the whole top-right and bottom-right sections are deeply damaged, concave and exposed. The edge of these damaged areas show the lattice structure of the space station but the middle be indented. Deep damage sections For the super-laser a ring of foam the size of the circle was cut and attached. For the inner piece, I pushed various circular objects (bottle caps, cups, etc) into a disc of foam to make marks. I then cut random shapes out along the arc segments and glued it in place. Sealing the foam I glued a narrow piece (~2mm) of foam onto a wider piece (~12mm) for the central equator trench. The two hemispheres were then joined together using four small dabs of hot-glue, and the equator foam glued into place.Paint the ball completely or work in segments — it all depends on your taste. Lastly, they peeled the masking tape not long after painting. Winter holidays Furniture Storage & organization Beds & mattresses Kitchen & appliances Home textiles Lighting Baby & kids Home décor Kitchenware & tableware Rugs, mats & flooring Bathroom Outdoor Plants & planters Home electronics Pet accessories Home improvement Laundry & cleaning Smart home IKEA Food & Swedish restaurant Home Accessories
Make sure to press the tape down well before painting to avoid leaks and blotches. But even if you have some slight uneven lines — the end result will be great. TheDeathStarhas so many little bits and dots, it will look like you wanted it this way 😉 Drill & Bit (1.5mm) & Hole-saw bit (54mm): To make holes. Also to cut out a circle to make the super-laser part. I drilled the big hole a little above the equator for the super-laser. I duct-taped both inside and outside to stop the plastic from shattering/splitting. Using a hole-saw bit means that you can reuse the circle of plastic as the super-laser. This circular offcut was flipped over and hot-glued into place. Sketching the damage outlines Where the predrilled holes were, I pushed dressmaker pins through the craft foam and the cement. This is obviously easier to do whilst the cement is still wet. I didn't push the pins in complete so I could pull them out more easily.
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The next step is to prepare your favourite cement mix. Cement is not good for your health - I made sure to wear goggles, a mask, nitrite gloves, and did all the mixing outside. I used a 1.5mm drill bit to drill a bunch of holes on the sphere. The grid markings on the surface of the sphere was handy to follow. Since the fibres are around 0.5mm, this hole should be big enough. I kept drilling until I got bored - which wasn't long. Add trench / panels It'd be great if we can cement the optical fibres into the Death Star. However, fibre optic cables (even the plastic ones) snap, break and pull out easily. It might not matter if I used an actual mold (e.g. a ball within a ball) and poured the concrete in...but I was going to be slapping a concrete mix onto the inside of a ball. So I pre-drill the holes and use craft foam to cover them. Then I'll remake the holes with pins after the concrete has been added. Plastic Fibre Optic Cable: I got this from a cheap light toy. If the lengths are short and straight, you can use clear fishing line too although it won't be as bright.
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