£24.95
Right back at the start I did a fairy lithophane light, kind of inspired by Art Nouveau and the illustrations of Arthur Rackham. I’ve decided to bring Moon Dancers back with the new printer, and I think it works really well.
This time, rather than creating the picture as part of the 3D print, I print the cylinder first in white PLA and then add the artwork directly to the surface with my UV printer. It gives the fairies a lovely illustrated quality when the light is off, but it’s when you switch it on that the design really comes to life. The moon glows behind them, the colours soften and the fairies seem to appear against the night sky.
I wanted this Art Nouveau light to feel a little like an illustration from an old book – something you might have found as a child and remembered years later. There’s no particular story behind the Moon Dancers, so you can make up your own. Perhaps they only appear when everyone else has gone to bed. Perhaps they’ve always been there.
Because the light is rechargeable, you’re not deciding where it lives based on where the nearest socket happens to be. Put your Art Nouveau fairy light on a bedside table tonight, move it to a bookshelf tomorrow, or carry it downstairs to give a darker corner of the room a bit of gentle light in the evening. There’s no cable trailing behind it and, with around 12 hours or more from a full charge, you don’t need to keep plugging it in either. A couple of hours charge every few days should keep you going nicely.
The included remote lets you choose from 13 LED colours, adjust the brightness, or have the light slowly fade from one colour to the next. There are also 30 and 60 minute timers, which can be handy if you like falling asleep with a light on but don’t want it glowing all night and running the battery down.
At around 23cm tall, it’s big enough for the artwork to have plenty of detail without taking over the room. And because the image wraps around the cylinder, the scene changes as you turn it, rather than having one obvious front and back.
If you love the flowing lines and slightly otherworldly feel of Art Nouveau, Moon Dancers is my take on an Art Nouveau fairy light made for a modern home – rechargeable, portable and designed to look just as good switched off as it does glowing in the evening.
I’m definitely pleased I brought this one back.
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