The Galaxy Star Ceiling

Rich in detail, and highly textured, the Galaxy with its sculpted constellation graphics will be the focal point of any room where it is installed.

This fantastic new product is available now direct from Starscape. Order online or by phone. For more information visit the Galaxy link under star ceilings main navigation bar or click here.

 

 

Customer project 12: Star ceiling disk (cont.)



Here are a succession of photos taken throughout the project by Dan's girlfriend, Sara. As you can see, he had plenty of help from friends and family. So, in Dan's own words:



"The images are quite self-explanatory and you'll see that we began with 2 sheets of mdf and heavily primed them before we began. The photos pick up the story where we used 2" x 2" battens to strap them together.

Two sheets of mdf are joined together using a batten framework.We then cut the circle with a jig-saw all in one go to ensure a perfect match between the two sides. The pictures don't show us recycling the off-cuts as plates to reinforce the join

between the two sides.

Then, the painful part, dismantling our hard work to get it in the house! We had designed the frame/battens to be just small enough to get through the doors and up a winding staircase. Placed on the floor of the room where it would live, we re-assembled.

Several hours of filling, sanding and re-priming later, we put on a couple of thick coats of white emulsion.


Once the disk is reassembled in the living room the filling, sanding and final paint coat followed.Meanwhile Sara counted out 200 grains of rice and, once the paint was dry, we scattered them and drilled the holes for the fibres. With a few extra pairs of hands, we threaded the fibres and taped them into position.

All hands to the fibres - friends helped to insert the 200 fibres in holes drilled in the disk.



Seeing the interaction of the long, uncut fibres, we were tempted to leave them hanging! They looked really interesting.

The fibres in the custom harness were sufficiently long to have each fibre projecting a few inches from the surface before being trimmed back closer to the disk.



Finally, we used heavy duty hooks (normally used to hang children's swings) and screwed four of them into the ceiling joists. Four corresponding ones were screwed in to the battens on the back of the disk.

The unit weighed a considerable amount at this point and we had been considering the problem of mounting it for some time. With two men lifting the disk up vertically and offering it to the first two hooks, I was able to use chains to attach the first two positions.

The disk was then hanging vertically from the ceiling. This made attaching the other two chains that bit easier.

We had pre-wired the power cable for the lighting unit and plugged it in. And there you have it!

As for light leakage, there is some but it comes from the fibres rather than the lighting unit. This works in its favour as it very slightly lightens the tone of the ceiling itself and silhouettes the disk. I made no special arrangements to shield the light emanating

from the unit and it works fine."



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