Lambent Lantern
The Lambent Lantern is a retrofuturistic, steampunk styled, ambient lighting effect lamp – a project by Drs. Cornelius Quack and Lohiss Spykes (only one of whom is genuine doctor).
It’s a half-way house and collaboration between Grahame Jebb (traditional fabrication techniques) and me (creative technology) – both of us core members of Cornbrook Creative based at Cakebread Workshop.
We developed and refined the fabrication and electronics together to produce a working prototype – and showcased it at a few events – the Time Quake Steampunk Festival 2019 at the BEC Arena, Manchester, 6-7 Apr; Manchester MakeFest 2019 at the Science & Industry Museum, 25 May; and Liverpool MakeFest 2019 at Liverpool Central Library, 29 Jun.
Our plan was to produce a limited edition run of two versions of the Lambent Lantern – a Standard and Deluxe model (the latter featuring a slightly larger but significantly higher resolution LED ring – 60 mini LEDs as opposed to 24 standard LEDs) – alongside a ‘Build-Your-Own’ weekend workshop. This included one day exploring traditional fabrication techniques – an introduction to: etching; tin bashing; modifying off-the-shelf components and materials; re-creating aged patinas and finishes etc. – and one day on embedded electronics – an introduction to: microcontrollers and electronic circuits; soldering components on a circuit board; coding essentials; trusted DIY electronics online resources etc. – woven into the guided construction process over the course of the weekend.
We thought running a workshop under our watchful tutelage where you could learn about the techniques involved and develop new skills while you built your own – and for the same price as buying a production model – was a pretty good deal. While we generated some interest through our social media promotion and the showcase events above, unfortunately it wasn’t sufficient to actually run the workshop or put it into production.
The project’s been sitting on the back-burner since – but there’s now a stack of parts and components cluttering our studio spaces – so we really should get on it and make some up.
More details – including an overview of the techniques and technology involved – can be found on the Lambent Lantern website.
A demo video of its functionality embedded below.