More recently (07/19) we made a trip out with petals and lighting in the plan and boy was it difficult. A reminder, we’ve been building this entire thing as only two individuals with smarts but limited experience in projects of this type and scale. Large, soft looking, glowy petals are a difficult task to produce. Adding the complexity of water and wind protection only adds to that. But progress was made! And we have colors!

Adding more smaller details and inside decor. Started to put those fabric vines in and adding PVC petal stems with hinges. It’s all coming together!

In a twist, another crafty camp member helped us build out a support platform for us to pad and upholster to provide a larger and comfier seating space. Petals are in with stems affixed and hinge-able.

A lovely artist stands next to her incredible work. Lots of clean up and body work done and ready for our next trip. Unseen: A TON of wonderful fabric vines to add texture and detail as well as containers and pvc structural elements for petals up top.

First trip out (06/2019) and we decided on some body structure elements and where to create flow using pool noodles. Things came together much faster than we expected and excitement ensued.

The petals are where we planned to create the bulk of our ‘radical illumination’. Even before the first vertical petal design, the core idea was having independently indexed panels filled with diffused WS2812 LED strips, all grouped and indexed in a way that allows nuanced control of the system. We’ll be aiming for roughly 500-600 Lumens of diffused output per petal, with full RGB configuration, spread out over 32 petals.

Lighting is my jam, but this our first large scale project to demonstrate things on. For the vines, we aren’t relying on them to provide our major light. They’ll simply be accents. Faerie lights embedded throughout should provide nice pockets of twinkle. The vines themselves will be hollowed out in portions with thinner walls so we can create some glowing patches for a magical ‘ley-line’ effect. Brightness can be decent using 5050 RBG led strips but isn’t the main goal. First pass will focus on white, with color being provided by external factors.

More detailed sketches were made around petals and their design. Should they be a single solid object? Draped fabric? A material resting on a frame And how will they be lit?

Now we need details. The first sketch goes into the vines. We detail out needs in terms of density and detail. Potential materials include pool noodles, spiral wire wrap, rope, and wound fabrics.

Discussion over the initial design was lengthy and ultimately, the foliage felt uninspired and the petals felt cumbersome and detracted from the core gifting element we wanted for the car. A change happened: We inverted the petals to be lifted (like doors) instead of lowered. We changed the leaves into a vine network wrapping the entire car. Branches allowed for technical needs and rocks helped make the shape more irregular.

Our first concept rendering had the base car being covered with foliage and the upper cage being covered in massive lotus petals. The core idea was that the petals could be opened to form a blooming lotus.

After much discussion and debate, we settle on some agreements around something flower-based like a lotus. Going with the theme of ‘metamorphosis’ we wanted a design that could exemplify this with ease. The next sketch started covering basic ways to start covering everything.

The first step was to measure everything. The car is in Reno, and we’re in New York, so we need to do most of our planning from home. Initial design ideas start to fly around like: “Teddy Bear”, “Safety Cone”, “Ladybug” and “Corn Cobb”

This is the art car we acquired, in it’s barest state. We stripped everything that was either moldy, broken or otherwise falling apart. This included a faux-fur covering with lights over the cage, faux-fur lining covering the yellow surfaces, the seats, some headlights and nailed down support as well as a web of tangled wiring.