Raspberry String Lights Made of Hot Glue

Introduction:

I came up with these raspberry lights that are based on my all time favorite berry because I love to decorate my room with string lights. They set a nice evening tone, but in the summer they often feel too holiday or too boring and not summery enough for me. So in order to be able to bring some nice, soft, summery lighting to my room I made these raspberry light covers.

My favorite discovery in making these is that putting one color inside of the raspberry and a different one on the outside, creates a two toned effect that can even look like blown glass from a ways away, and it yields the coolest end result I think.

This is a fairly labor intensive process, but very rewarding, because you will get compliments on them and then you get to say, "Oh thank you, guess what they are made of?" So far no one has guessed hot glue :).

I hope this tutorial brings summery joy to your bedroom evenings!

This is my very first Instructable ever, so thank you very much for taking some time to check it out!

Step 1: Step 1 Gathering Tools and Materials

I broke up the tools and materials list by step, since this is a process with wait times at the end of some of the steps, but if you prefer to plan ahead I put a itemized list of all the materials together at the end so scroll toward the bottom.

Tools and Materials by step

Pictures of most of the tools and materials for each step are included.

Step Making The Clay Raspberry
A piece of clear shelf liner or parchment paper to protect your surface from clay residue
Air dry clay or oven bake clay Clay similar to what I used, mine is out of stock sadly (if you choose air dry you must use a air dry clay that doesn't contain sulfur, as sulfur interacts with silicon curing.)
glass or heavy duty cup pencil toothpick or a dot clay tool
spare light bulb from your light string
reference photo of a raspberry optional
LED light string 10-20 lights or however many you feel you can handle
patience to allow your piece to dry or cool before moving on to step 2
Step Making the Mold of your Clay Raspberry

A outdoor area (silicon emits harmful vapors while curing.)
Newspaper to protect your outdoor space 100% percent silicon in either clear or white just make sure it's 100% silicon Clear caulk I used A caulk you can hand squeeze in case you don't own a caulking gun
strong pair of scissors
long nail or something to break the foil liner in the caulk tube
disposable gloves
caulking gun
wiki how on how to use a caulking gun in case you never have before instructions on using a caulking gun
Disposable cup or bowl
stir sticks disposable or disposable utensils
spoon
cornstarch
bag to put used silicon covered stuff in. Best to place this in a outdoor trash can after you are finished to keep extra fumes out of the house
paper plate
your clay raspberry
vaseline
long pin for poking holes in your cured mold
hot glue gun and glue stick for sealing the end of silicon tube after you use it
Step Making the Hot Glue Raspberry

parchment paper to protect your surface and make hot glue clean up easier
hot glue gun and something to place it on if it leaks like mine (a paper plate perchance.)
a lot of clear or colored hot glue sticks that fit your glue gun (if you use colored hot glue you want to make sure it is translucent.)
used silicon finger covers optional I used these
small precision scissors
pin for popping air bubbles if they appear
Step Coloring the Raspberries (Making the Magic)
if you used colored glue sticks you can skip this steps materials
watercolor markers optional The watercolor markers I used
or colored sharpies
Or translucent acrylic paint
Or translucent nail polish
any or all of the above can be used to color your raspberries
modpodge or clear elmers and water for sealing your paint and blending in your markers
paper plates for mixing paint
a paint brush or a few
some water in a cup for washing your brushes and maybe some paper towels
your half raspberries made of hot glue
something to protect your area from the paint
Step Assembling Your Raspberry Lights
hot glue gun
clear glue or same colored glue
silicon finger caps optional
light string
Itemized list of all materials needed:
please note links to certain materials are above only
parchment paper
Air dry or oven bake clay (air dry clay must not contain sulfur) more details above
A glass or heavy duty cup
pencil toothpick or a dot clay tool
spare light bulb from your light string
reference photo of a raspberry optional
LED light string 10-20 lights (or however many you feel you can handle .)
A outdoor area (silicon emits harmful vapors while curing.)
Newspaper to protect your outdoor space
100% percent silicon in either clear or white just make sure it's 100% silicon (more info in step 2 tools and materials above)
strong pair of scissors
pair of small precision scissors
long nail or something to break the foil liner in the caulk tube
caulking gun
wiki how on how to use a caulking gun in case you never have before (more info in step 2 tools and materials
disposable gloves
disposable cup or bowl
disposable stir sticks or disposable utensils
spoon
cornstarch
plastic bag to put used silicon covered stuff in
a few paper plates
vaseline optional
long pin for poking holes in your cured mold
hot glue gun
hot glue sticks clear or colored (much more info above in step 3 tools and materials )
something to place hot glue gun on if it leaks like mine (a paper plate perchance.)
silicon finger covers optional
watercolor markers optional (More info above in step 4 tools and materials )
Or colored sharpies
Or translucent acrylic paint
Or translucent nail polish any or all of the above can be used to color your raspberries
modpodge or clear elmers and water for sealing your paint and blending in your markers paint brush or a few

Step 2: Making the Clay Raspberry

Gather your tools and materials for this step:Check step one tools and materials for a list of things you need for this part.

Make sure you size the raspberry you create to the light string you are using. Depending on the clay you use the item may shrink a bit when it either dries or bakes, so please consider this in deciding on your size. My clay shrinks slowly over the course of a week, but is pretty dry to the touch and for molding in 4 hours to a days time.

1. Lay down protective covering on your table for working with your clay.

2. Take a chunk of clay that looks 3-4 times the size of your spare light bulb and roll it into a ball.

3. Push the clay ball over your spare light bulb.

4. Pinch the end of the ball lightly and roll, to bring a slight taper to the end (see pic) no need for perfection cause you are going to cover this part up.  

5.Next put a extra hunk of clay down and shove the wire end of your light into it to hold it upside down while you work, this totally optional, it just holds the body of your raspberry it in place while you work.(see pic)

6. Roll out a snake of clay and then pinch off pieces and roll into little balls.

7. Place your first ball on the center of the bottom of your berry and then place the next balls around that making kind of a flower shape (see pic) my clay dries so fast that I make the balls while I am attaching them (rather then making them all before, but you do what works for you and your clay.

7. Continue filling in the raspberry with the little balls moving around in circles. Do not worry if your little balls are not all the same size, they are not perfect in nature either.

8.Once you get half way down with the balls on the body of the raspberry, remove the raspberry from your chunk clay base. (You can put away the clay base now.)

9. Take your toothpick or clay dot tool and press a line into the middle of each ball on the body of the raspberry. After you have put a dent in each ball, roll the body of the raspberry very gently a little back and forth to soften the look of the balls and make them cling better to the raspberry body.

10. Remove light from the center of the raspberry rock back and forth while removing if you feel you need to widened the hole a bit. (widened it if you are concerned about your clay shrinking.)

11. Now put a pencil in your raspberry where the light used to be and place it in your heavy duty cup. (This is optional you may have made something too small to fit a pencil in it and if so, just set it gently on your work surface and skip the pencil bit.)

12. Now roll out another snake and make more little balls and begin pressing onto your raspberry base just under the last line of them you did, same as before. I like to go slightly bigger with the last two rounds of balls. You probably going to need to remove the pencil and pick up the raspberry for the last few rounds of balls.

13. When you get your raspberry body filled with balls near the top you can take the pencil out if its in the way, dent in each ball again and roll lightly back and forth table to squish them down a bit.

14. Place the last round of balls up over the edge near the hole in the body of the raspberry dent those balls too and do finishing touches. Then place back on pencil and in cup (or just set on work surface) to dry leave to dry according to manufacturer's instructions or bake according to manufactures instructions.

15. Allow to fully dry or fully cool before moving on to the next step. my clay was dry enough to use in my mold in about 4 hours, but most clay's take longer. If you are using oven bake clay you want to make sure it is completely cooled before you move on to the next step.

Step 3: Making a Mold of Your Clay Raspberry

Gather your tools and materials: Check step one tools and materials for a list of things you need for this part.

Silicons vapors are harmful while it is curing and it is harmful to get the uncured silicon on your skin, so please work outside and with gloves.

1. Move outside with your materials.

2. Lay out newspaper to protect space and open your cornstarch and place your spoon in it.

3. Place your caulk into your caulking gun.

4. Put a light coating of vaseline on your raspberry body if you are concerned about it sticking too much to the mold. ( I have tried this with and without vaseline and it came out of the mold fine both times, but if your clay is different than mine you may want to use vaseline.)

5. Put on your gloves and cut off end of the caulk tube. The get your nail and pierce the inner foil inside the caulk (don't forget this step or you will not be able to get the caulk out of the tube.)

6. Squirt the caulk into your disposable cup. I used 6 squirts of caulk which ended up being a bit more then I needed.

7. Add 2-4 drops of food coloring or acrylic paint into your silicon cup and stir until incorporated. (see pic) (The moisture in the food coloring and or paint, allows the silicon to begin curing, thus the color of said food coloring doesn't matter too much.)

8. Add a heaped spoon of cornstarch into your caulk and food coloring mixture and stir, keep adding cornstarch a spoon at a time and stirring until mixture thickens, to the point where you can't really stir it well anymore(see pic). I added 6 heaped spoons of cornstarch in all, until my mixture started clinging to the spoon and becoming impossible to mix.

9. Remove the mixture from the cup and plop onto a paper plate (see pic).

10. Knead your silicon cornstarch mixture. If you knead this a bit with your gloves on, you will end up with a nicer mold with less cracking, but you do not have to technically knead it. (I didn't knead it at all this time , since it was hard to knead the mixture and take pictures :). If you do knead it, keep you bag and second pair of disposable gloves near by, since this stuff is horribly messy and will stick all over you so you may need to change gloves after a bit. If it is still really sticky add more cornstarch and knead more until you get a nice dough texture. Keep in mind you have to work quick cause this stuff sets up in like 5 minutes.

11. Form your dough on your plate into a ball and press your raspberry half way into it and make sure dough is nice and tight around it (see pic).

12. Allow to cure for 10 mins or so. Touch top of mold to check firmness. Although this stuff cures quickly the fumes are still pretty bad for the first hour or so. So if you choose to bring your mold indoors before a hour has passed make sure you have good ventilation. Mine Cured in less than 10 mins.

13. While it is curing you can heat up your glue gun and squirt glue on the end of your open silicon tube to keep it fresher for longer (see pic). The silicon tube will probably still only last a few days and then become rock hard, so if you want to make more molds try and make them soon.

14. Gently remove the clay raspberry by pulling the mold gently away from the clay raspberry and then lifting it gently out.

15. Wash out inside of mold with dish soap if you used Vaseline or wipe out.

16. Then poke holes with a pin clear through your mold from the top down two on every other line of your raspberry bumps/dents. This allows air bubbles to escape the mold better.

Your mold wont last forever. It hardens and gets more rigid slowly over time, but it should last a few months at least unless heavily used and then you might need to make a new one, so hold onto your clay raspberry.

Step 4: Making the Hot Glue Raspberry

Gather tools and materials for this step: Check step one tools and materials for a list of things you need for this part.

Something to keep in mind: Making the hot glue raspberry really involves making two hollow half shells that you later glue together, after you color them. You can vary the thickness of you glue as much as you want (Although make sure that the thickness isn’t so much your light wont fit inside). The thicker the glue is the further apart your inside color and your outside color will be, which creates a different effect then having a thin glue shell, which tends to make the two colors blend more.

FYI: In the pictures I show colored glue since it is easier to see than clear, so just pretend it's clear if you would Thanks :).

1. Lay down parchment and maybe heatproof pad for hot glue gun .
2. Set up glue gun and get it warming with clear glue or colored if you so choose. My preference is clear glue because I think it looks nicer when it's colored by hand, but I will show the process of filling the mold with colored glue, because it is easier to see than clear glue.

3. Put on your finger caps if you have them, (otherwise grab a small piece of parchment) and pick up mold and tip it. Begin coating the inside of the mold with glue around the outside edge of the raspberry (see pic) then move to the center and fill that in. If you see any air bubbles you can poke them with a pin and then press on top after.

4. Once it's cooled slightly you can can begin pushing it into mold firmly with a silicon covered finger tip (quick strong presses work best, like a dabbing motion.) If you try to touch the glue too soon the glue will stick to your finger cap. (if you choose not to use finger caps wait till the glue cools enough that you can press a small piece of parchment on top of it without burning your hands.

The goal is to make a hot glue shell shaped like half a raspberry.Pressing it allows it to mold nicer and to have more grip inside for the paint to stick.

5. Once its it pretty cooled you can remove the glue by slowly lifting one edge of it away from the mold (see pic).

Having trouble? Please check troubleshooting at the bottom of this page.

6. Trim around the outside edge of your half raspberry shell to smooth it out (see pic).

7. Make multiple of these raspberry shells because it takes two to make one light cover.

8. Make sure to turn off your glue gun when your all done.

Troubleshooting:

Ripping means either glue was too warm when you removed it from the mold or too thin. Try either waiting for it to cool more before you remove it. Or try making the glue thicker and then waiting a bit longer for it too cool.

Air bubbles you can pop them with a pin while the glue is still hot in mold or patch them afterwards with a dot of hot glue over them. Sometimes I even dot the air bubble spot with glue and shove it quickly back in the mold.

Step 5: Coloring the Raspberries (Making the Magic)

Please skip this step if you used colored glue sticks

Gather your tools and materials for this step: Check step one tools and materials for a list of things you need for this part.

* This step can be done many different ways, you are really only limited by the fact that whatever you put on the raspberry to color it, you want it to be translucent, so the light can show through. You can always check by painting a scrap piece of hot glue and then holding it up to the light.

1.Choose the paint or marker you want to use and choose either the inside or outside of raspberry shell to cover first. Color or paint it. Just make sure you make at least two of the same color if you want them to match.

2. Allow to dry before you do other side. You can only paint one side or you can do both sides with one color. But my favorite effect is to paint one color on the inside of the shell and a different one on the other side. See the blue and red lights in introduction pics. At the bottom of this step I outline how I made the string lights you see in my intro pictures.

3. Color as many shells as you need for your light string and enjoy! Don't like a color you made, remember you can always layer another color on top, or on the underside, to change the look.

4. Allow all your shell raspberry pieces to fully dry before you move on to the last step.

Here I will outline what I did to make the two different string lights shown in the intro pictures, feel free to experiment.

1. Red and blue string: I colored the outside of the shell with a red water color marker and it doesn't look great (see pic), but watch what happens when I paint it with clear glue and water mixture (see pic.)I allow those to dry and then flip them over and put blue glossies glass paint on the inside of both of them.

Please note I mixed only enough water into my clear elmers glue that is moved like paint and not glue, maybe about 3 parts glue to one part water?

2. Pink and red string: For my next one I colored it with permanent marker in a hot pink on the outside and then put watercolor red marker on the inside and added more elmers and water with a brush (see pic). I also love the combo of blue and purple. Blue raspberries :) also pictured.

Step 6: Assembling Your Raspberry Lights

Gather your tools and materials for this step: Check step one tools and materials for a list of things you need for this part.

1. Get your glue gun warmed up.

2. Hold your two raspberry sides together to see if they fit well, if not, you should trim them more before you glue them together. Also check to see if your two raspberry sides stuck together will fit nicely over your light bulb? if they wont fit the light bulb properly, trim away excess glue at the top of the raspberry or add some more glue to make space smaller if need be. (see pic)

I don't glue them to the lights so that I can remove them if I want, but you could actually glue them to the light if its easier.

3. Once both sides of the raspberry are fitting nicely and fitting nicely over your light bulb, lay a line of glue around the edge of one of your raspberry sides and lay the other on top of it and hold for a sec while the glue cools.(see pic) Make a raspberry sandwich!

5. Now slip you 3D raspberry over your light Yay!

6. Finish attaching all of them to your light string in the same fashion as above and then hang them and enjoy!

7.Great Job to anyone who made it through this! Thank you for sticking it out with me!

P.s. Don't forget to unplug your glue gun ;0