What's the deal with glow in the dark?

Those of you who don't know me very well (and it's not many that do), might not be aware of my penchant for glow-in-the-dark supplies. It's nothing you see me use very often and it's not like I have some compulsion to buy all kinds of glow-in-the-dark stuff. It's just that I have this childish fascination for glow-in-the-dark (aka GITD) craft supplies like glass beads, embroidery floss, yarn, clay, paint, craft and beading wire, sequins, inkjet paper etc.

Therefore you can right now find GITD sequins, Accu-Cord beading wire and seed beads (including twin beads) on my wishlist. Things some of you probably weren't even aware of existed. As for the two first items, I didn't know they existed until I got the idea to google it. I mean, it's GITD. If I can imagine a product in GITD, surely, someone out there somewhere must have already thought of it and begun making it. And it looks like they did.

As the days are getting darker, it feels like the perfect time to start thinking of some glow-in-the-dark project to make.I have made one, a GITD light garland, the which you can read about here (and/or here for a tutorial in Swedish). I do quite enjoy that one. I put the lights up in my bedroom and now that the evenings and nights are darker, I fall asleep under my own little starry sky.

In that post I also mentioned how my sis and I painted a night sky on a ceiling. I'm sorry to say it's just impossible for me to get a decent pic of it as it's so discreet in daylight (we tried our best to do it in a grown-up, stylish way...) and so hard to photograph at night. The best I can give you is one of the walls were you can see the house with GITD windows. I mixed the GITD paint with the wall paint to get a subdued glow, not as strong as in the stars but rather diffused (a trick I learned from a woman who gave me a tip about GITD polyclay and how I could mix it with other colours of clay). There is a constellation further up on the wall, but it's pretty much impossible to see in that artificial light.

(Yeah, painting those apple tree branches was a slight PITA. First tracing them on the painted wall using a strong lamp and a branch placed in the right angle and distance from the wall and then painting the whole thing using small brushes and paint mixed to one or so shade darker than the wall. Fun fact: guess how long it took before the cats dirtied the wall? Yepp, that fast.)

Anyway, back to my GITD stash. Many things are still just on my wishlist, but I have a few fun things to play with anyway.

First there's this glow-in-the-dark polyester embroidery floss from DMC. Really good glow in it and very soft and pliable. This thread is part of DMC's Light Effects range, no. E940. Do believe there are other GITD embroidery threads available too, but this is the only one I have.

Then there's my never opened package of nightglow Fimo polymer clay. Have thought about using this as mentioned above, blended with other colours. Not sure exactly what I want to do with this, though.

Then there's my beads. The starfish pendant actually belongs to my sis now. It's one of those sold without the GITD particles in it mentioned. Fun surprise for some, not so fun for others. My favourite amongst the few czech and chinese GITD glass beads I have are without a doubt the czech pinkish flower and leaf beads. Unlike many beads, the GITD effect isn't that apparent in daylight. No spooky-coloured spots or whitish lines as in the other beads in the pic. They look very normal -- unlike you turn off the light.

In the background you can also see som of my Hama "perler beads". When I got the idea to make my GITD lights, I had to buy a whole package of these beads, about 1 000 of which I used perhaps 100-150 for the light project. So I have a lot of plastic beads left to play with.

And that's pretty much it. They things I have to work with for a GITD project right now. I wonder what I'll do with it?


PS! For a longer, but still far from complete, list of GITD supplies of interest to beaders and jewellery makers, see this post in my other blog.

PPS! Couldn't keep from making a new Pinterest board: Glow in the dark craft ideas.