The physical build is made up of two parts:
- a mask that slots into the back of your canvas
- a box that holds the LEDs
The box is cut from one sheet of corrugated plastic. It will fold up and slot into the back of the canvas and secured with four screws
Cut the Mask
A butterfly shape will be used to mask out some of the light from the LEDs, leaving just an image of a butterfly -- a little like a reverse silhouette.
First, you need an image of a butterfly. Below is one that you can download, or you can search for your own. You'll need to scale this to the appropriate size for your canvas and print it out on a sheet of paper.
Cut a sheet of your corrugated plastic to fit inside the back of the canvas. This should be very snug, and if anything, slightly oversized.
Once you have this cut out, tape the butterfly shape in the middle, and use a craft knife to cut out the shape. It is easiest to do several light passes with a craft knife rather than a single hard pass.
If your corrugated plastic is translucent, you might want to cut the same shape out of dark paper or card to block more of the light. Here you can see that I've used a bit of tape to hold the dark paper and corrugated plastic together
Be careful when using a craft knife to avoid cuts. Suitable eye protection would be prudent also.
Build the box
You can 'score' the corrugated plastic using a light pass of a craft knife -- this makes it bend easily in exactly the place you want. It takes a bit of practice to get this right, and the bits you cut out from the butterfly are ideal for cutting practice.
The cuts you need to make for the box are shown in the image below.
- Red lines are scores on the front
- Blue lines are scores on the back
- Black lines are through-cuts
Exact dimensions aren't given as it's based off the actual size of the canvas, which will vary a bit from manufacturer to manufacturer. This will be detailed shortly.
The length of the two side folds isn't critical. These are used for screwing the plastic sheet to the canvas.
Start by scoring the inner rectangle. This is the same size as the mask, so you can use it as a template. The outer square should be about 1.25 inches (3cm) bigger, so make sure there's space for this.
Tape the mask to the middle of a section of corrugated plastic making sure that there is sufficient space on all sides. Once you've scored this, you can work outwards by measuring and cutting.
The two blue scores on the side should be approximately half the length of the side, leaving about a quarter at the top and bottom. The blue scores need to sit on the wood of the canvas, so they need to be the same distance in as the wood is thick.
Attach the LEDs
Corrugated plastic is, in some ways, easy to work with, but it does have one problem: not much sticks to it. CA glue holds a bit, and there are some specialized adhesives. However, I've had the most success with duct tape.
Your two strings of LEDs should be positioned in an exact mirror image of each other. This way whatever pattern you display will be mirrored perfectly on each wing. Zig zag the strands up the sheet in the way shown in the photo. Ideally, you want the LEDs on one layer to fall between the LEDs on the layer below. This will prevent any dark spots.
Your USB cable for powering the project needs to run from the wall USB power source and pass through the plastic sheet to the Mini Sparkle Motion board. Cut a cross in at the appropriate place for passing the cable (don't forget to account for the fact that part of the plastic will be covered by the wood of the canvas).
You'll need a way of hanging your art on the wall. I used picture wire, but you could use string or even regular hookup wire. You'll need to make two small cuts on either side of the picture that you can thread the wire through and twist it to keep it secure.
Your butterfly is now ready for software and then to hang on the wall, plug in, and enjoy.
Next, we'll take a look at the software. WLED is a software package that you'll load onto the Mini Sparkle Motion and then configure via your computer.
Page last edited February 11, 2025
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