In the mean time, here's some WIP pics.
Taking apart the tea lights.
Did you know that these little lights get there name from their actually flame counterparts because those were designed to sit under your tea kettle to keep the tea inside warm? I learned that watching Cash Cab on Discovery Channel this morning.
Making sure I know which wire and which part of the battery is positive and negative.
I've got all the lights dismantled. The furnace is hollowed out. Using the smallest pieces from a bag of decorative broken glass, I made what will be the burning embers by gluing them and the skull to the cut, clear lid of a trading cards holder. You can see the grooves in the furnace where the ember plate fits in nice and snug. It will sit almost flat, but tilted just a bit toward the door.
I already gave the ember plate a translucent coat of yellow and put one unmodified tea light behind it so you can see a bit of the effect I'm after. I painted the skull to have a boney color, but to look dirty and ashed up.
I cut a sheet of styrene to hold the LEDs, and using a series of lines, figured out the most uniform positioning for five LEDs figuring the interior would be dark and not much light would actually come out if I only used one light.
Here's a shot of the ember plate in front of the furnace with a tea light inside. Right now there is a lot of light reflecting off the unpainted, bright yellow foam of the interior making me think that five lights will be overkill, but once the inside is painted black, the plate is finished with a deep red highlights and black 'snow peaks', and the LED tray is positioned beneath it, I think five lights won't be too bright.
Ultimately, I want to achieve a look like this, but not quite as dark.
