A couple of months ago I was looking for a game to play. I had finished the new Dragon Age game ( Dragon Age Inquisition ) and was hungry for something new.

To my good fortune the new Witcher Game has just recently been released and it has a whole lot of rave reviews. ! So, I ordered myself the game. (The Witcher: Wild Hunt )

And I am not disappointed. This game is absolutely amazing. Maybe I will write a review about it and let you know what I think. But for now let's take a look at the sword I made from the game and the creativity of it!

Being in the middle of the game I thought it would be great to make a project. And... then on my youtube channel several people left comments suggesting I do a project from Witcher 3. So... cool. I had to pick something. Other than the wolf necklace and the wolf theme there isn't anything in the game that is really iconic of the game. So... I figured I would do a sword.

Then again there isn't a sword that is really unique with a good iconic look. But... many of the swords do have a series of glowing runes along the length of the blade. So I thought it would be terrific to make a sword that had a series of glowing runes. That is iconic!

Now to figure out how to get those runes to glow.

Could I use glow in the dark paint? Nah! That's not very good. Another option would be to use LED's. That's a good option. They dont need much power and I can keep the batteries in the handle of the sword.

But... I was thinking it is a lot of work. I can't ask my youtube visitors to buy a bunch of LED's and solder them all together. It's rather impractical.

Then I remembered a project I made. It is a lightbox and in it I used a string of LED's. It is a very convenient thing. Kind of like a roll of tape with LED's on it. You just need to power it up.

That Project is here:

Make a Light Box

A light box is a wonderful little thing. You can use it for tracing, drawing, and even reading x-rays. But they are very expensive to purchase. I have a nice tutorial here that shows you how to make a great one very cheap. It uses a string of LED's as the light source. How to make a light box

But..... It uses 120 volts! And a power supply and power cord.

Well... I can't be doing that with a sword. Even though I have done a sword with 15, 000 volts. But that was different.

LED's don't need much power or voltage (Usually around 5 volts) so I thought that maybe I could find a tape of lights that was battery operated.

Low and behold a search of amazon.com turned up a whole lot of nice options and in a nice assortment of colors. I ordered several different setups and this one was perfect for the job:

Rtgs Micro LED 20 Super Bright Blue Color Lights Battery Operated on 7.5 Ft Long Silver Color Ultra Thin String Wire

So... the line of LED's can go inside the blade and the battery pack can go inside the handle. And that's that ! All I have to do is figure out how to make the rest of it.

And it's an interesting thing because people never see this aspect of creating a project. But I went through a whole bunch of different pieces and iterations while trying to figure out this sword. My workbench here shows all the scrap foamboard I used up trying to figure it out.

One More interesting aspect to this project:

It is nice to build a new sword out of foam board. But.... I can't just do that. I want other people to also make it! And that means I have to engineer it in a way that is reasonably easy to make and reasonably easy to understand.

And that is the why for all this foam board and all the iterations of the sword.

This part of a project can be challenging. But it becomes worth it when I get a picture from a web visitor who actually used the template and made the sword :)

So... Quick review of the creativity of this project:

1. Decide on what to make ( Sword with glowing runes)
2. Tackle the difficult challenge )In the case of this project the difficult challenge is getting the runes to glow cheaply and easily
3. Design the sword in a way that is easy to make and easy to understand so other people will enjoy it

Creativity: NOW! Top Keys to Unleash Your Creativity, Come Up With Brilliant Ideas & Increase Your Productivity Tenfold! Lead Innovation Through Creativity, ... Writing, Copywriting, Visualization)

Creativity: How To Increase Your Creative Confidence & Change Your Life (Health Wealth & Happiness Book 41)

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