Naked Mole Rats: Rekindling the creative spark
The brief was simple. Identify something on the internet that brings you joy. Take it and build upon it.
Finding something that made me laugh was easy — any of the videos in True Facts documentary series on YouTube by zefrank1 will do it. But what to create — that wasn’t as obvious. I had to watch a few for possible inspiration. Then it hit me — a naked mole rat with twinkly eyes. (I know if sounds crazy — but watch the video and you’ll be laughing.)
And who better to help create a naked mole rat with twinkly eyes, then my 11-year old nephew. So this became our project for the weekend. A trip to McGuckin Hardware for the LilyPad arduino and related electronics, some modeling clay and beads and we were all set.
First we sketched what the figure was going to look like and where we would place the battery pack and the LilyTiny Controller (for the twinkly eyes). Next came testing of the electronics before we assembled it. Good thing we tested everything as one of the lights wouldn’t light.
Sculpting the naked mole rat came next. Luckily a naked mole rat has the shape of a potato with legs and a tail, so it was within my sculpting ability. We carved holes for the eyes and inserted the LED lights for the eyes, making sure the wires didn’t touch each other.
While we let the sculpture dry, we watched a few more of the True Facts documentaries.
Once the sculpture was dry, we added the final decorative touches.
Thank you @znerold for helping C7 rekindle the creative spark that brought us to BDW in the first place.
I am currently a student in BDW’s 50 week graduate program. Learn more about the BDW program.
Follow RE: Write for more articles from BDW Students
