Easy and Enchanting LED Fairy Globes

On today’s Maker Update episode, Donald Bell showed off a recent project by Make: contributor Linn of the Darbin Orvar channel. As Donald said, it has a real “Now, why didn’t I think of that?” quality to it. And as Linn points out in the video, there’s a real big bang for the buck in terms of the cool decorative light you get from minimal effort.

The project is quite simple, with minimal parts and cost, and with some surprisingly enchanting results. As Linn says, you feel good being around these little fairy globes and can’t help but feel like you might have found yourself in a Harry Potter story.

To make the fairy globes, Linn used little more than large, clear Christmas ornaments (available at any craft store), chunks of attractive wood for the display bases, and strings of battery-powered LED fairy lights. For her project, she made two versions, one where she simply attached the battery pack to the back of the wooden base (using Velcro), and one where she drilled and chiseled a battery pack compartment beneath the base (covering that with a piece of cloth and securing it with screws). In both instances, she finished off the wood with tung oil.

Besides the video documentation, Linn also posted a full Instructable for the project.