I decided I wanted to make a costume that was both recognizable, as well as original, so I made one of everyone’s favorite art projects as a kid a “Lite Brite” costume. I wanted something that actually worked, so I knew I had to find a way to get the pieces to move and have color.
I first decided up Lucite rods that I found online. They come in different florescent colors in 6 foot long poles. I had them cut down to 2 1/2″ pieces, with five different colors. I built the box from scratch using thin Lucite wood, and made a light board inside of the box using tap lights and Velcro. I had to put a hinge on the light board so that I could get to the lights to change out their batteries.
Next I drilled out holes that were equal distance apart and created the “board”. In order to get the pegs to stop from going all the way into the holes, I attached a thin piece of plexi glass that the light could shine through and illuminate the pegs. I took wine corks and painted them black to block out the spots that I wasn’t using for the pegs.
I painted the whole inside white to help make the light stronger, and I painted the outside of the box all black. I also took a pool floaty and cut it in half and glued it around the neck area to make it more comfortable when it sat on my shoulders.
To add to the look, I had on all black under armor and ballet tights, as well as old snowboarding boots that I spray painted black. Lastly I had a curly black wig that had red fiber optics in it to make it glow. All and all the costume was I’ll be it heavy, but a great success. You can’t really see how well it glows, because of the flash on cameras, but it really interesting and I felt the sailboat picture came up the best. I also had the classic clown for a while as well.
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