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 on line or by phone. For more information visit the Galaxy link under star ceilings main navigation bar or click here.

 

 

Project 3 Star Carpet

An alternative to a star ceiling, and one which may appeal particularly to children, is a star carpet.
Tools for the star carpet couldn't be simpler.
This is a relatively easy DIY project (up there with falling off logs, in fact!) and one which requires minimal tools. All you need is a crochet hook and scissors.
On the materials side you'll need your rug or carpet and some form of backing material to protect the fibres once they're in place. When selecting your carpet bear in mind that there will be fibre optic cables running under it, so to avoid these cables being visible or noticeable underfoot you're better off with a reasonable depth of pile. When choosing your carpet, remember that the lighter colours in the colour wheel - white and yellow - will show up better against a dark background.The lightsource can be any of our standard lamps, but for the carpet project you'll need a thinner fibre than is normally supplied with our star kits. For this application we recommend bundled .25 mm fibre since this thin fibre is far more flexible than our .5mm or .75mm fibre and thus won't scratch bare feet. However, the thinner fibre transmits less light so you may be better off with one of our Intermediate or Large star kit lightsources since they are rated to 75 watts.

The bundled fibre cable contains 62 individual strands of .25 mm fibre and you'll have to strip the protective sheathing back far enough to expose the fibres for inserting into the carpet.

Normally, to ensure an even distribution of fibres across the carpet we'd advise marking the back of the job into equally-sized sections, but since you'll be pushing the crochet hook through from the front you'll just have to do this by eye. Alternatively, if you're using a patterned carpet you may prefer to incorporate the fibres into the pattern, rather than simply have a random sprinkling. This is where your own creativity comes into play!
The crochet hook pulls the fibre through from the back.
The thin fibre is snagged by the hook at the back of the carpet.
The hook is pushed through from the front, the fibre looped over the hook and then drawn back through. Leave enough fibre protruding to ensure that it doesn't accidentally get pulled back through while you're working on the other fibres. You can trim the fibres to length later.
Once the fibre is securely fixed in place it can be trimmed back to length.
The individual fine fibres are contained within the black sheath.
Once you have all of the fibres inserted, you'll need to use your preferred choice of backing material to protect the fibres. Non-slip matting might be one choice of material. You'll need to either tape or stitch it into place. It's also recommended that you stitch the bundled fibre cable to ensure that it can't be pulled out by accident if someone should accidentally snag the cable while walking across the floor, for instance.

Ideally, the lightsource should go beneath the floorboards - provided there's enough space - but wherever it goes, ensure that there is sufficient ventilation to allow the heat from the lamp to dissipate. Remember too that there will be some slight noise from the lightsource (from the colourwheel and/or fan), so under the bed may not be a great place to hide it.
Hey presto! A twinkling rug.
DIY Star Carpet with 64 light points.
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Star Cloths

 

End glow fibres