Designing Fixtures for Plasma Flowers
When I first made my krypton-filled plasma flowers, I displayed them in a tall vase filled with sand (the glass stems of the flowers stood upright in the sand) but this was not the most convenient set up. So I recently designed a more stable means of displaying these sculptures, with a wall-mounted panel and fixtures made from parts of PVC pipe. Three plasma power supplies are mounted on the back of the panel and the wiring runs through the inside of the fixtures to connect to the flower stems.
This video shows the finished display, and how the flowers attach to the fixtures.
Here is some of the process of making the panel and fixtures-
To start, I needed four different kinds of PVC parts (which will be modified later), and a wood panel. Similar to the shadowbox fixture I made for my blue plasma star, I used plastic and wood because these materials are not electrically conductive. The PVC pipe is also a good way to hide the wiring and it comes in many different kinds of shapes that can fit together. I started with the available shapes and then cut some of them shorter.
I found some curved shapes that will resemble flower stems, and since I wanted these fixtures to look botanical I added sculpted leaves made out of Magic Sculpt, a two-part epoxy putty that bonds well to the plastic. It has to dry overnight, and then it will be just as strong as the plastic.
I cut three holes in the panel and then glued the small PVC parts into the holes with epoxy. I added sculpted leaves to the curved pieces (which will be the base of the fixtures) and then I fit these into the panel holes and glued them with more epoxy.
I then spray painted the entire panel and fixtures. The straight pieces are left separate because they will be individually attached to the base of the glass flower stems. While spray painting I put pieces of rolled-up paper towels inside all of the pipes so that paint would not get on the inside (because this would interfere with how they fit together). Actually, I forgot that I also did not want paint on the bottom portion of the straight pipes, because it makes them hard to fit into the base fixtures, so I had to sand that part off later…
Next, the straight sections are glued to the glass flower stems, to cover the electrode. I don’t use epoxy for this; silicone adhesive is the best for gluing directly to the glass, because it is more flexible and can be removed if the glass should ever need to be repaired.
This is what the back of the panel looks like. The plasma power supplies are attached to the back, so that the wires can hang down below the panel, and the whole panel hangs by a French cleat. This is not because it is particularly heavy, but the cleat puts some space between the wall and the panel so that there is room for the power supplies. Also, I like how it gives the panel a “floating” effect on the wall.
The finished panel:
