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I made this handcraft for my loving baby Stephanie while I was in Ipoh. I was inspired to create a unique gift that can entertain her when she was bored and can be used as decorative item. Therefore, I created the handcraft which I called MarbleNLamp. The name signifies two aspects of the handcraft:

• Marble: Marbles for play
• Lamp: As a simple light source/décor item.

MarbleNLamp Introduction Video

There are several main components in the design which are the light source, spiral tracks, returning tube, marble launcher/top cover, and a hard base.

The spiral tracks allow the marbles to roll down along side the walls. The balls will be released from the top using the funnel-shaped top cover. The marbles will be stored at the bottom portion and to take out the marbles, I created a special tube at the center. When the body is flipped upside down, the marbles will be rolling through the center tube and by-passing the tracks.

I originally thought of inserting my own components to have the lighting effect. However, it would be aesthetically displeasing if there are sights of wiring and batteries. Therefore, I just used a commercially available LED light source from Energizer which uses two small CR2320 batteries. It is compact, bright, long-lasting (30 hours) and most importantly it fits nicely for the craft.

Top view of the MarbleNLamp without the top cover.

The most difficult part of making the craft is the spiral track. To make the tracks, I cut approximately an inch-width of transparent plastic sheets. Then, I made perpendicular half inch cuts approximately one inch a part. Next, I overlapped the plastic sheet slightly where I cut previously and stapled it. This enables the track to be curved.

Close up view of the spiral track

The tricky part is to glue the track into the cylindrical body and adjusting the gradient of the spiral.

The next step was to create the return tube at the center. A funnel shaped ending was added to the tube with a small opening at the sides. This enables the marbles to roll along the tracks and enter the bottom compartment but prevents it from going back into the tracks when the item is flipped. Therefore, the marbles will be forced to roll back through the center tube when the MarbleNLamp is flipped.

The cone-shaped top cover was made with two layers of colored sugar paper to give it thickness. The purpose of the top cover is to reflect back down the light and also to be used to release the marbles onto the track.

The base was made using a hard black cardboard. The base is needed to hold the LED light source into place.

Finally, the finishing touches were done. To hide the glue from view, a pink ribbon was used to spiral around the body alongside the track.

I have always been interested with image manipulation through Adobe Photoshop but due to time constraints I was unable to develop my skills. However, since last year I have been using Photoshop quite frequently. After reading books and working on ‘projects’, I am quite familiar with image manipulation.

My father requested me to prepare a photograph for my mother’s tombstone. After going through all the photos that we have, we chose the best photos with the most details. However, most of the photos were printed photos and had to be scanned. The photographs were lacking of detail. Therefore, I had lots of photoshop work to do.

The first step was the most difficult, as I had to determine which photo to use as a base and had to analyze the work to be done. After several hours of work…here is the result… Please let it load completely first (total of about 500kb). When your mouse pointer hovers on the original image, the edited image will appear.


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The spectacles, eyes, nose, teeth and lips were taken from another photo.

Have a photo that you need restoration or enhancement work? I will be willing to help