During a camping trip, B expressed a love of glowing embers and a desire to hold one. Clearly that is a terrible idea... so why not make him and glowing ember he CAN hold?
I took a flickering orange LED circuit out of a LED candle and covered the switch and battery compartment with cling film. This was to protect it from any moisture from the paint and modelling paste.
The LED and wires on top were protected when I attached a covering made from a plastic drink bottle.
Next, I used layers of modelling paste to hide seams and make it look more coal-like. I left some of the drink bottle plastic uncovered by paste because we want some of that light to come through.
I then mixed some red-orange paint with a mattifying gel medium (embers don't have a sheen and it made the paint a bit more translucent) and placed this where light could shine through.
The next step was painting the rest of it black.
But an ember isn't so clean looking, so to improve realism I made some ash (I have a lot of incense and it creates a nice fine, predictable ash).
I stuck this ash on using more of the matt gel.
Finally, it had to be put in a suitable container for gifting. I used some aluminum foil to line the box to add some insulation XD It also emphasized the glow nicely.
Final verdict: B loved it! He can now fulfill his wish safely.
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