Maybe I'm not so lame afterall... Eiffel Towers

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WinkDesign

WinkDesign

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Oct 7, 2006
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So, recently I've been kinda down on my design skills, a little annoyed that I don't seem to have the powers of design innovation that a lot of other florists have (especially after the last few design seminars & demos I've gone to!)

Next weekend is that BIG event, where I get to do whatever I want. Like I mentioned, I'm using the opportunity to try eiffel tower vases for the first time.

Earlier today, I still hadn't decided what I was going to do with the inside of the vase.. marbles, colored water, sand.. but was leaning towards lighting somehow.

I have the clear ones, and in experimenting with a glowstick. Didn't like the way the glass was SO clear, so I fashioned a long tube out of wax paper, stuck a glowstick at the bottom, and fed it down the vase. I only had the one glowstick around, but I could see how it would look much, much better with the wax paper.

Then, in a moment of sheer brilliance, I pulled the wax paper out, cut the top off the glowstick, and emptied the fluid into the vase. After swishing it around a bit to coat the sides, the effect is *AWESOME*!

It does tend to run down the sides gradually, so now I'm thinking I'll empty one into each vase like this, then fill it with clear marbles, and then empty another one over it for a trickling effect. I can't WAIT!!

I'll be posting photos in a few minutes. Thoughts?
 
Kewl ... can you mix it with water, to make it more fluid-y? Is the fluid inside okay to wash down the sink after? Can't wait to see the pictures!

tracy
 
The fluid is actually not water soluable.. beads up and the falls to the bottom. It's totally safe though (I used to break em open and pour em on my own skin in my rave kiddie days, lol!), so I'd probably dmp it down the sink. Hubby is anal about the drains though, he's saying just dump it in the garbage.

It's pretty much all pooled at the bottom now, and while I think that the marbles idea would solve that nicely, we're now working on a way to increase the viscosity of the fluid without losing the fluorescent properties. That would get it to stick to the vase better.

The other thing I might do is fill it with marbles, then just FILL the rest with the fluid. I think that'd be pretty, funky, and fairly cheap, too.
 
Here is a picture.. taken in the bathroom.. classy, huh?

eiffeltower.jpg
 
Forget the marbles. Just the glass and the glow, especially if the room will be dim. How long do you think the glow will last?

tracy
 
So it's not water based - how about adding some veggie oil? Or whatever oil wouldn't change the color ...

tracy
 
Hrm, I may have spoken too fast - it appears that oxygen shortens the "life" drastically. It only lasted like 45 mins outside of the tube.

I'm gonna buy a whack of glowsticks and experiment over the next few days. Shouldn't be too hard to block the O2 problem. Maybe pour it all in, then seal off with plastic wrap or putty, somehow.
 
Fascinating idea!
 
This is what I know about glowstick and it is if it is not opened.
You can preserve the glow by leaving it in the freezer to temporarily to "freeze" the glow till you want to use it again later on.

You might be able to make the glow last longer by keeping the vase as cold as possible.

Let me know if it helps, in case you feel like trying.:bouncy:
 
Yep! Problem is that the O2 seems to negate the benefits that freezing provides!

Even the glowstick fluid that was dropped into water lost its fluorescence quickly. Interestingly enough, the opened glowstick that we dropped open-end into the water still had active glowing drops in it, hours later. There was air caught in it, but apparently not enough to kill it.

We'll be picking up some more glowsticks tomorrow to play with it. I think the marbles and fluid will work, as long as we cut off exposure to air. Realistically, JUST the fluid should work, but the amount we'd need (there will be 15-17 centerpieces like this!) would be insanely expensive!
 
There are small led lights available that come in packs of 4 and are mountable (sticky on back) that could be used as light bases too. We have them stuck to the wall. They are about 2" diameter and are called stick and click. I think a pack of 4 was under $10. Never thought of using them as light bases though, thanks Cathy for the idea.

Let us know how you fare with the glow sticks.


Interesting post, thanks!
 
glowstick components

Found this info, thought it was interesting, not sure if it will help or not.

There are three components of a lightstick. There need to be two chemicals that interact to release energy and also a fluorescent dye to accept this energy and convert it into light. Although there is more than one recipe for a lightstick, a common commercial lightstick uses a solution of hydrogen peroxide that is kept separate from a solution of a phenyl oxalate ester together with a fluorescent dye. The color of the fluorescent dye is what determines the resulting color of the lightstick when the chemical solutions are mixed. The basic premise of the reaction is that the reaction between the two chemicals releases enough energy to excite the electrons in the fluorescent dye. This causes the electrons to jump to a higher energy level and then fall back down and release light.

Specifically, the chemical reaction works like this: The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the phenyl oxalate ester, to form phenol and an unstable peroxyacid ester. The unstable peroxyacid ester decomposes, resulting in phenol and a cyclic peroxy compound. The cyclic peroxy compound decomposes to carbon dioxide. This decomposition reaction releases the energy that excites the dye.
 
Theresa,

Where do you get the small led light in question?
Please tell me!
 
Jstall4!

WOW!

Are you sure you are a florist?
Sounds like you have a phd in molecular science!
I am very impressed!!!!
 
Update: Today is the big day!

We were going to look into obtaining the different chemicals and see if we could tweak it to increase viscosity and "stick".. but we ran outta time. So now we have 3/4" plastic tubing cut into 2' lengths, the bottoms have an ugly (but completely airtight) bright orange seal.

So, I'll be gluing leftover rosepetals to the bottom tube cover to hide it, sticking the tube down the vase, filling it full of glowstick fluid, then capping it off. Half of the vases will have pink glow, the other half purple.

The flowers I ended up using are:

hot pink roses
Hot pink carnations
light pink stargazers
starfighters
purple alstromeria
hot pink boronia
purple waxflower

Should look pretty cool. Managed to break a vase already, though :( I'm 8/11 of the way done arranging the flowers for these, should get back to it.
 
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