Make: has covered projects that use all kinds of materials — metal, wood, plastics, and resin, just for starters — but here’s a material we have never covered: Swarovski crystals.
We were recently surprised to receive a small box of crystals from Swarovski as promotional material for this year’s Fall/Winter designs. And, frankly, we don’t know what to do with them.
Lack of imagination is hardly a good enough reason to let this sparkling manna go to waste, though, so we’d like to give them to the reader that proposes the project that best utilizes these crystals.
Altogether, there are about 20 crystals: a few beads, a few pendants, a charm, a 4-hole button, and a 2-inch strip of graphic fabric with a crystalline coating (the graphic fabric is not pictured above). The crystals are either clear, metallic gray, or an iridescent color that Swarovski is call scarabaeus green.
So what would you do with them?
Tell us in the comments below before Monday, November 2, 11:59PM PST. In order to choose a winner, the Make: editors will be looking for those proposals that demonstrate the most creativity, unconventionality, and resourcefulness. If you’re the Maker with the most deserving proposal, we will send you the stones so you can make your project happen. There’s just one catch: we want to know how it turns out when you’re finished.
As much as we like to think that we’re pretty clever here at Make:, it’s the work of the Maker community that never ceases to impress us. We know that if there’s someone who could do something innovative with these gems, it will be one of you. We can’t wait to hear what ideas you come up with!
Update: We have a winner! You guys came up with so many interesting ideas. Unfortunately, we could only pick one. Congratulations Dan Calvert!
24 thoughts on “Comment to Win: What Would You Make with a Swarovski Crystal Sampler?”
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It may be worth mentioning that Swarovski crystals are (as best as I can make out) lead crystal. That means that they probably shouldn’t come into contact with food or drink for extended periods (although a few hours shouldn’t be a problem), and aren’t recommended for use against bare skin in very small children.
Lead is glass does not leach. They are made of a similar kind of leaded crystal that fancy (and harmless) wine glasses are.
I’d like the crystals to try and make a really cool belt, where each crystal would be mounted above an LED. Conductive thread would be woven in connecting the LEDs together and lead to a hidden battery compartment.
I would continue a series of synthetic pebbles I have been creating; i would combine the crystals with potentially cement, wood, metal, leather, or resin to create holdable “pebbles.” This is a link to my project http://www.saphierdesign.com/pebbles/
I would explore the light transmitting properties of these crystals to see if I can make light paintings that can be projected on the wall or ceiling, perhaps including sensors that can respond to the viewer by altering the output.
I’ll take enough to make Liberace proud!
I would make myself a laser (:
a mini digging tool, attached to a RC truck of some kind. like im going to dig a tunnel maaaaan…. or maybe a an automated garden trough digger…..
I’d incorporate them into the jewelry I carve from bone. I usually use natural materials like mother of pearl for inlays and embellishments, but I think using something as elegant as Swarovski crystals together with a medium as primal as bone would make for an interesting contrast… maybe even an artistic statement. Also, it would push me to adapt my techniques and therefore broaden my skill base.
Two words: Frickin’. Lasers. I want to mount the crystals into motorized, rotating mounts, shine different colored lasers through them.
With this device, I could become Dr. Light — the photonic super villain who mesmerizes his enemies with rainbows of light!
Or maybe turn whatever room I’m in into a disco.
Or use it to entertain a thousand cats at once.
Shiny.
Being in the wedding industry, I think these crystals could be used and designed into a beautiful wedding cake topper. This could bring a lot of joy into a brides life as a cake topper then kept as an heirloom piece.
I would use the crystals as accents on a body painted model in a light painting photoshoot.
I’d make lots of money!
Add bling to everything my daughters have.
I like Quiet_Genius, Maker Dan, and Yakobi’s ideas the best so far. I can’t think of anything truly useful (for me) to make with them. If I come up with something, I’ll be back.
I have built an astromech, and crystals would look great inside of the holoprojectors with some LEDS behind them. I believe these could bring a more radiant look to the dome and be used to make cool lighting effects from inside the body that shine out through various ports (right now the only light on the inside is the lights on the PCBS that run suite so. Using these we could create some awesome looking accessories for a droid
The only possible answer is a princess’ tiara.
It has no interesting electrical properties so I’d just use it for backlit buttons on an arcade controller.
id probably use them to create a gem gate somehow, where the user has to input the crystals in the correct order to gain access, I could even mound lasers beneath them so the make a colour if placed correctly.
Those crystals would take some of my robot sculptures from drab to fab!
My daughter wants to take a flour sifter and cut holes in the side to mount the crystals, then mount a laser inside to shine through them. I suggested we could swap out the hand crank for a motor and hang it from her ceiling as a modern disco lamp
when will we find out who has been chosen?
The winner will be contacted directly and announced on this page if they are comfortable with that.
I would etch the facets of at least one of them to make a die. I would try to take interesting photos through another. I would hide one, make a map of where it was hidden and then put the map in a bottle and throw it in a pond nearby. Another one would probably sit on my desk for awhile as “potentially cool to make something even cooler with”, before being made into something…