My tableau was from the mythology of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

The phoenix was made from the origami crane template.  I punched a hole in its tale, attached some brass wire, and then made it hover above some cardboard that I had covered with various layers of spare fabric I had on hand.  The circuit diagram below indicates the simple circuit I created using copper tape, two LEDs, a coin cell battery and the alligator clips.  I had to futz with the circuit in order that the led legs didn’t cross and short circuit without lighting the LEDs.  On the other hand, the shoddy work resulted in some nice flickering.

Materials:

• printer paper
• fabric (black, some cheesecloth, a pre-crocheted granny square)
• cardboard
• brass wire
• copper tape
• 2 LEDs (orange, red)
• 3V lithium coin battery
• black alligator clip jumper wire

Resources:

electronic origami flapping crane

Circuit diagram:

Work in process photos:

Afterthoughts:

I had intended to make this project using the flexinol wires as in the tutorial.  I struggled a bit with the origami folding (originally I wanted to use translucent tracing paper but that didn’t diffuse the leds that well and it was hard to fold).  Once I looked at the video in the tutorial the movement of the muscle wires wasn’t that spellbinding, so I settled on using leds.

I decided to use place the phoenix on fabric that would both diffuse the lights and telegraph some sort of ashen decay.  Most of this project was playing with stuff that didn’t quite work.  The circuit was frustrating because it was more trial-and-error than conscious, efficient building (e.g., I wanted a blue led to be the central part of the fire but couldn’t manage it using only one coin cell battery).