Magnificent Luciferin Machine Natalie Parish from Bag End Studio

Inspired by an Italian trip to a Leonardo Da Vinci Invention Museum I wanted to create a Mythical Steampunk Machine.  Imagine my delight when I found Leonardo Napkins at Tamara’s Paper Napkins on Etsy!  I also wanted to create a Sci-Fi vibe, so I did a bit research on fireflies. Firstly, I discovered Fireflies are not really flies but beetles from the Order Coleoptera.  The light is from the compound Luciferin which is the most efficient light in the world and used in a growing field of medical research as well as gene manipulation in plants so they light up in our homes potentially reducing the consumption of fossil fuel based lighting. Now my imagination was set alight and a whole story lit up in my head of world where humans could harness that light and energy.  Would it be fabulous world – maybe not?
Human Impact Report Lampyridae - (lightning-beetles).
Giant light emitting beetles from the Lampyridae family produce the most efficient form of light.  Since mechanization and the ability to intensify oxygen concentrations, we harness beetles as a renewable source of light and energy including luciferase plant gene manipulation for creating indoor plants that service our internal décor needs. Additionally, luciferin extraction is now essential for gene technology, medical research, food safety, and forensic testing.  As such the living Magnificent Luciferin Machines are now an important source of employment accounting for 80% of work in Machine Pasture Counties. 
The expansion of human territories has caused habitat destruction for these necessary creatures and as we are still unable to force reproduction we rely on a natural source for capture and herding.   Environmental Protection Zones have become a necessary norm. Visitors will be allowed to use the zones for recreational purposes within guided areas as the carnivorous larvae of these beetles are dangerous to humans.  Therefore, the Luciferin machine industry by its very use of these creatures is protecting this species and large tracts of environmental parks for future generations to come.

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​ Materials:

• MDF Firefly & Steampunk Pieces & Cog Chipboard Mats, (I kept stencils for another project)
• Box of Cogs from Bag End Studio Store - optional
• Bulbs & Gauges (Dusty Attic) from Bag End Studio Store - optional.
• Little People from Bag End Studio Store - optional
• Powertex Universal Medium-colours of your choice. I used Terracotta, Yellow Ochre, Bronze/Black PTX
• Stone Art – mixed with Terracotta and Bronze
• Easy Coat Varnish - Glossy
• Powercolours of your choice to embellish your work. I used titanium white, orange, and brown
• Colourtrix colours of your choice to highlight powercolours. I used bronze, clear, and rich gold
• Medium Balls
• Triangle Hooks for hanging.

From your useful box:

• Alfoil and Masking Tape
• Masking Tape, waste photocopying paper, alfoil for form building
• Wire or string
• Skewers, toothpicks to fit through cog pieces
• Masking Tape
• Tonic Plastic Bottle – requires emptying first through the mixing with Gin and Lime followed by human consumption.

Equipment:

• Plastic covered workspace and mixing bowls
• Paint brushes (one for Powertex and one or two for pigment colours)
• Lids for Palette (or alfoil).
• Palette Knife, flat spatula
• Craft knife
• Clay modelling tool
• Washing up Container for cleaning
• Gloves, Chux Cloth, Paper towel
• Gladwrap (to wrap Stone Art clay and to cover opened Powertex bottles)
• Air-tight container to store clay. 

Step 1: Design Layout

• Surf the internet or Pinterest for inspiration.
• Push or knife out your pieces and play with positioning them.
• I created a 3D mock-up of my beetle.
• I attached it to a bottle which later would be housing for the fairy lights.  I cut a small rectangle in the masking tape area to fit a battery pack. Make sure that the pack can be inserted and removed.  Put masking tape over the sharp cut edges.
• Note: the masking tape area at the small end of the plastic bottle will later be hidden by stone art.
• I also included a temporary small container to hold the tail upright and a masking tape strap across the wings to hold the design in place.
• Note:  In hindsight, I could have sealed the MDF Boards with Terracotta PTX before playing with the layout.

Step 2: Make Stone Art

• In a bowl with a medium amount of Terracotta Powertex Universal Medium (approx. 1/2 cup), add Stone Art (approx. 1/2 cup) and mix with a flat spatula.

• Keep adding small handfuls of Stone Art until it forms a kneadable dough like mixture that no longer sticks to the bowl or your gloves. Remove the sticky ball and add a little more Stone Art to the bowl to ‘flour’ the ball. Knead well until the clay can be pushed into a textured surface and be removed again without sticking.
• Keep the clay ball wrapped in glad wrap and in a sealed airtight container to prevent hardening until use.

Step 3: Making Compound Eyes

• Make a flat based half sphere out of crumpled paper and masking tape.
• Paint the balls with black Powertex and while wet dip the heads into the small balls. Let dry.
• Re-paint the eyes with Black PTX.
• Repeat the process if you desire more texture.
• Finish with Dark Silver Colourtrix

​Step 4: Seal & Colour Kit Pieces

• Paint/Seal MDF, and chipboard steampunk pieces with terracotta PTX
• I used extra pieces (Box of Cogs from Bag End Studio Store) Let dry.
•  Dry brush the kit steampunk pieces with easy coat glossy and powercolour. I used a mixture of orange, titanium white and dark brown powercolours.

Step 5: Make Beetle Body & Head

• Make a flat oblong base and flat semi -circular shape out of crumpled paper and masking tape.
• I created a crease in the middle of the back of my body to house the gears.
• Paint and seal with Terracotta Powertex.  Let dry.
• Use a sausage shape of stone art clay around the base of your beetle body to attach it to your firefly body.
• Similarly use a sausage of clay to attach each side  of the MDF body to the bottle.
• Use a stone art clay attach an MDF Circles and Clock to create a head. Spread the clay out around the head piece and texturize with one end of a skewer.
• Seal all the MDF firefly pieces with Terracotta PTX if you have not done so.
• Paint inside the bottle where you can see the masking tape on the inside making sure you keep the bottom end clear.

 Step 6: Create Gears 

• Using some stone art clay attach Cogs & Skewers/Toothpicks together to create a gear system to your liking. 
•  Cogs can be separated with circles of stone art or held together with mock metal rivets – to illustrate I used bronze stone art clay.
• I used extra-large cogs from Bag End Studio’s Box of Cogs as my centers and firmly secured my center cog into the back of the firefly using stone art clay. I used the largest chipboard cog piece at the back and attached it to the body base using stone art clay.
• I left the masking tape holding the wings in place temporarily until everything dried.

​Step 7: Stone Art the Bottle 

• Roll out Stone Art Clay. I used a texture roller and scissors to cut pieces.
• Paint a little bit of Terracotta PTX on the back of the clay pieces before attaching to the bottle.
• Attach the middle legs using stone art clay.

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Step 8: Make Beetle Legs

• Using Terracotta stone art clay, join MDF pieces to make legs. Leave to dry at least overnight and then attach to Firefly body using stone art clay. This is fiddly and time consuming but worth the results.

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​Step 9: Optional Gauges & Bulbs

• Lightly seal the gauges and lightbulbs with Yellow Ochre PTX.
• Let dry
• Using Easy Coat Glossy embellish with Rich Gold Colourtrix.
• Position and attach pieces to your own stylistic liking using stone art clay.  
• Do not forget to paint a bit of Powertex on the attachment surfaces to increase adhesion.
• Attach the eyes at the same time in the same way.
• I attached the chipboard pipes in the Firefly kit to the back of the firefly into the stone art clay and then used tiny pieces of stone art to secure. See photo in step 12. 

​Step 10: Optional Little People

• Using small pieces of stone art clay embed little workers into your artwork.
• Note: I attached the pipes in the Firefly kits to the back of the firefly over the bottle and used these in attaching the bulbs.

​Step 11: Optional Decoupage Wings

• Cut your napkin into four pieces.
• Using easy coat glossy varnish and a paint brush, apply a thin layer onto the top of the wings and then decoupage paper onto the wings.  Varnish the underside of your wing folding the napkins underneath. Carefully, seal napkins with another layer of varnish as napkins are more fragile than paper.
•  I used Leonardo DaVinci napkins from Tamara’s paper napkins. https://www.etsy.com/market/tamaras_paper_napkin
• Finish off piece with a light dry brush of Colourtrix Golds (Rich, Bronze and Clear).

Step 12: Light Her Up Baby

• Carefully, insert fairy lights filling the bottle bulb (firefly bottom) and turn on the attached battery pack and hide pack in the stone art covered front end of your fly. The K-Mart Lights come with a switch so I can turn it off and on without having to remove pack from the bottle until I need new batteries.

Congratulations you have finished
 See you in June with some Anthropomorphic Nonsense.
Natalie Parish from Bag End Studio