Holographic glitter in electric candle

Reflections, refractions, shadows, and colored lights.

The winter solstice has come and gone, and the daylight is getting longer. We’ve enjoyed the light of candles, holiday decorations, and (sometimes) fireworks. So today’s post is just a look back at some of the interesting and beautiful effects that light can have.

Let’s start with some reflected lights–but colored lights.

Christmas lights reflected on gold wrap.

Christmas lights reflected on a metal hanging lamp.

Not only are colored lights beautiful, but their reflections are also beautiful and interesting. And then there are the interesting shadows they cast along with the reflections.

Christmas tree lights and shadows on ceiling.

Christmas tree lights and shadows on window shade.

I like the light-and-shadow effects almost as much as I like the tree itself. Almost.

When I was young, “holographic” paper and foil was a very fancy and expensive item. I think I paid a dollar apiece for some postcards with a holographic coating as a teenager–I’m not sure what that equals in today’s dollars. Today you can buy wrapping paper that is thin plastic with all sorts of nifty holographic effects, wrap gifts in it, and then throw it away. It’s that cheap.

I don’t tend to buy the holographic wrap because it doesn’t fold neatly and doesn’t tape as well as paper, but I do appreciate all the fabulous light effects available with holographic film. I have several electric candles filled with liquid and holographic glitter, and I find them mesmerizing. They also refract and reflect light in interesting ways.

Reflections from glitter-filled electric candle.

I deliberately cropped photos to emphasize the interesting light effects, but in case you want to see where they came from, here are some of the original photos.

I also have some previous posts on light effects.

Pelican Shadows and other shadows of interest

Sun and suncatchers: rainbows in my room

Reflecting on reflections: the stories inside the shine

Scented candles  (look at final photo)

Till next post.

Some time ago, I sewed a mini-backpack that was loosely based on the mini-backpack I use regularly as a purse. I always meant to have another try, hoping to produce a mini-backpack that was more attractive, less floppy, and lined. Finally, here’s attempt number two.

The denim mini-backpack.

I think it came out pretty well, despite some problems during sewing. In the photo, it is stuffed to make it look better, but it retains some shape even empty. For one thing, I used plastic “string” from the string trimmer (e.g. Weed Whacker) to give the back edge some stiffness.

I did try a lining this time, though I didn’t line the entire inside. Ideally, the lining would have pockets. Maybe the next version will.

View of backpack lining.

The problems I ran into varied from the difficulty of dealing with heavy denim (thank goodness for the sewing machine with walking foot!) to problems with measurements to getting the adjustable strap hardware to work.

Some of these measurements are wrong.

That last problem had a lot to do with the straps being made of heavy denim. I couldn’t figure out a way to make them without a thick ridge running down the strap somewhere. I have an idea for next time, though. I think I’ll try folding the sides in and having them meet in the middle without actually sewing them to each other. There’ll be a thin gap running down the center of the strap, but if I zigzag the sides together, maybe it won’t be constantly bending in half.

The other thing I want to say about this bag is that it is mostly reused material. The denim came from old jeans, the lining from an old sheet, and the zipper was salvaged from one of those plastic zip bags that bedding and curtains often sold in. The plastic “string” was from our old string trimmer. The new materials were the strap hardware, some seam binding to encase the “string”, and the iron-on crystals decorating the front.

Till next post.