Introduction: Kraken SpEye Camera

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About: hobbyist

Eyes seem to pop up in my creative space quite often. Also, I am certain that my alternate universe self is a spy for the CIA. Combine this with suddenly being introduced to sea shanties … and Viola !!

My brain mix and melds all of this Info into a fantastic peanut butter cup of an idea...the Kraken SpEye Cam!

While clicking around on the internet I came across a spy camera and the Kraken Spy Camera was born!! Here is a link to the project.

As usual my projects often involve me working in a medium that I have never tried before. This project is my introduction to Sculpey clay

Supplies

Electronics:

Spy camera ( obviously)

Pro Trinket

Slide switch

Lipo backpack

Lipo Battery

Soldering iron Solder

Band aids ( I always burn at least one finger)

Third hand ( sometimes I felt like I needed a fourth hand!)

Half size proto board

SD card for picture storage ( my card was 32 gb)

Art Supplies:

Sculpey III clay

Clay thinner and softener

Glaze

Craft paint-[ I own sooo much ]

Clay tools for cutting and shaping

Pasta machine - I did use it but, it was a bit of an extravagance for a noobie)

Paint brushes of course

Step 1: Electronics

So here is the diagram for assembly of the camera I sniped from the Adafruit site where I also got all of the project information. So please visit for the details I will give you the abridged version’

Solder together the spy camera, switch and the Trinket. Don't let soldering intimidate you, it's just fancy hot glueing.

Here are the connections

  • Slide switch to Lipoly Backpack
  • VCC from Camera to 5V on Trinket
  • GND from Camera to GND on Trinket
  • BAT from Lipo backpack to BAT on Trinket
  • G from Lipo backpack to GND on Trinket
  • 5V from Lipo backpack to USB

The code was uploaded using the arduino IDE, look here to set up the trinket If you need any guidance. Its so simple it fits in a picture.

I like this little board for wearables, I am sure I had a few lying around, My trinket had headers soldered on it from my testing on a breadboard.The 1st pic snapped was of yours truly. (I was entirely too close)

When switched on the camera takes a burst of three pictures pauses then takes another burst of 3 pics. ( The other two pics were comical!) These pics could be linked to make a timelapse video.

Step 2: The Moulding of a Kraken

Where does one hide their spy camera? I considered hiding it in inconspicuous spots in my house, but honestly we don't get many visitors, I could only spy on myself. A wearable seemed like an obvious way to deploy a spy cam (I mean this is SPY 101.. right- think phone shoe). Right on cue a craft store coupon shows in my email. Long story short, I bought loads of Sculpey III, far too many tools and I was off to the races.

I read quite a lot of suggestions and concluded that the steps are, shape it and bake it... so that is what I did. This is where those sea shanties came in. ( baking takes a while)

Here are some items that I took note of while creating the Kraken

  • The clay was darker once it was baked
  • For the tentacles I used wire and aluminum foil to make the fleshier and more dimensional
  • To attach the suction cups I made sure they were secure and not loose before baking, even adding a bit more clay to marry the pieces together. I used this method to attach the tentacles to the eye base as well smoothing it out to make them look like one piece
  • Make sure the eye hole is big enough to house the camera ! Test it out it is hard to adjust later

So there are MANY sites that will instruct you on proper baking of you clay so that it cures properly. I used this as a guide

“Bake for 15 minutes per quarter inch of thickness. For example, a piece of 1/2" thickness should be cured for 30 minutes." I did bake this in my toaster oven, I cleaned it after.

One my Kraken had taken shape and cured to the proper hardness. It was time to paint. I used regular acrylic craft paint. A primer might have been a good idea to make the paint application easier but I "Cracked On" … sigh. Occasionally stopping for tea and cookies. Incidentally, I baked the disk with the eye separately and attached the tentacles and baked again

Step 3: Tech-ing the Kraken

Attach the Camera to the piece with copious amounts of hot glue and moulded some loops to hang this around my neck, the only tedious part was getting the camera properly positioned in the eye opening. I used some wadding to keep the camera in place. So now where do I wear it>

Step 4: Releasing the Kraken

I wore the Kraken as a pendant with my Octopus automata paper headpiece, in our St Catherine's day Hat parade Here are some pictures taken at the parade with my Kraken spy Camera. The pictures are stored on the sd card and are easily retrieved for upload. They are not high resolution, but people were quite tickled once they found that I was taking pictures with the pendant

As a result of this project I will likely sculpt some additional pieces. Clay is very therapeutic!