How to Make a Tiny Terrarium in a Light Bulb
Ahoy there Hipster Homers! I’m Julie and I’m the very first guest blogger on this fine site. Today’s project involves breaking stuff, plants, found objects, and miniatures. Fun, right?
Let’s get started! We’re going to go through the steps to create your very own little terrarium. I like building terrariums inside of lightbulbs because of the inherent challenge of working in such a small space as well as how the simple, industrial beauty of a light bulb complements the intricacy of natural elements. (I was inspired to try this out after seeing this post on Apartment Therapy a couple of months ago.)
We’ll get into the nitty gritty of how to make one of these. But first, let’s go through some key dos and don’ts of light bulb terrariums. I assembled these tips and warnings through extensive trial and error as well as helpful advice from the folks at Flora Grubb Gardens and Hortica in San Francisco.
Dos and Don’ts
DO:
- Do use sand or small pebbles; these are good because water drains through them easily. (Wet soil will get moldy in a confined area. You don’t want this.)
- Do use Tillandsia, also known as air plants; these are a great choice for your tiny terrarium because they take all the nutrients they need from the air and a small amount of water. No roots means no wet soil which means no mold. You can buy tillandsia at garden stores or online.
- Do choose preserved moss instead of live moss. Preserved moss isn’t living, but it will hold moisture; this moisture raises the humidity level in the terrarium, which makes the tillandsia happy. You can find sheet moss, reindeer moss, and other preserved mosses at garden and floral stores.
- Do keep your terrarium in partial sunlight.
- Do give your terrarium some water. The tillandsia is alive and will need a small amount of water to stay that way. Water it by either removing it and soaking it in water once a week or, using a spray bottle, give it a small spritz of water every week or two. Pour out any excess water.
- Do feel free to use little rocks, pieces of glass, or any other bits of things to help give your terrarium character.
DON’T:
- Don’t use soil. Again, you don’t want a soupy, moldy terrarium. That would be gross.
- Don’t use live moss. Moss is really picky and isn’t likely to survive well in this environment.
- Don’t keep your terrarium in the dark.
- Don’t keep your terrarium in full sunlight, either.
How To:
You’ll need a few tools to make a tiny terrarium but nothing complicated to get started.
- Needle-nose pliers
- Scissors
- Long tweezers or chopsticks
- Flathead screwdriver
- Glasses or goggles
Let’s start with the light bulb. I like the globe kind that are used to light bathroom vanities. You can buy them at any hardware store, or preferably, use one that’s burned out to save resources. For those of us in northern California, one option for buying burned out bulbs (if you don’t have any on hand) is the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland. Don’t use “soft white” bulbs or else your terrarium will just look like January in Minnesota. I don’t think this is what you’re going for.
We will be removing the inside parts of the lightbulb. This step involves breaking glass, so wear glasses or goggles to protect your eyes. I recommend doing this over a box to contain any flying pieces of broken glass. And, obviously, this is an “adults only” kind of task.
First, remove the metal tip from the bottom of the bulb. Using needle-nose pliers, carefully nudge the sides of the metal tip from the black glass part.
Then, when enough of the sides are raised to get a good grip on them, hold one of the sides with your pliers and yank out the metal tip. You will feel a couple little wires snap when you do this.
Next remove the black glass. Hold one side of the glass with the pliers and firmly twist up to snap the glass. Repeat around the other sides and pull out any remaining bits of black glass. This glass is pretty thick and will take some force to break it; so be careful and hold onto the bulb firmly.
Now you will be able to see the interior parts of the light bulb.
Using the flathead screwdriver as a sort of lever, snap the interior tube from the side. It will make a totally satisfying little sound as the argon escapes. Then twist the screwdriver around to smash the containing tube. It takes some force to do this; be careful, but also don’t be afraid of the bulb itself breaking. It probably won’t. Hold tight to the bulb while you do this.
Pull out any remaining wires with the pliers.
If there are any last bits of glass around the interior edge, break these off with the screwdriver.
And now you have an empty light bulb! That is definitely the hardest part of the endeavor. Next, put adhesive silicone bumpers on the side of the bulb to keep it steady.
We’ll use sand as a substrate for the terrarium. You can buy it at a garden store or collect it from a beach. If you use beach sand you will need to thoroughly rinse it to remove any salt.
The sand in this tutorial is from the beach, so our first step is to rinse it.
To dry it, either spread it in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and leave it sitting for a few days, or dry it in the oven at 300 degrees. Be careful taking it out, because it will, hopefully obviously, be pretty hot.
The sand should be completely dry before continuing.
Once it’s dry, put a couple tablespoons of sand into the lightbulb. Make this easier by either using a funnel or a folded piece of cardboard.
This terrarium includes preserved sheet moss, reindeer moss, and tillandsia.
Cut off a small bit of sheet moss and put in the bulb. Position it using a chopstick or long tweezers. Tear off a few small pieces of reindeer moss and add this, as well.
Put a tillandsia in the bulb, pushing the smaller end in first. Position the different elements to look nice together and add more moss or rocks if you’d like. It might take some poking to get everything in the right place; be patient and experiment with different arrangements.
For extra fun, tiny toy animals can enliven your terrarium. I used a miniature horse for this one, and stuck a piece of gold wire in its head to make it into a makeshift unicorn. Any other found objects, like rocks, sticks, marbles, etc., would also be fun.
And voilà! You have a lovely terrarium.
More of my lightbulb terrariums are online at tinyterra.com and for sale on Etsy. I’d love to see your terrarium creations! Contact me at juliette@tinyterra.com.
A NOTE OF CAUTION FROM APRIL: Wise THH reader Shadus recommends using gloves when extracting the bulb guts. (S)he says “I would add– wear gloves while performing the delicate work on the bulb, they’re stronger than most people expect but a slip with the screwdriver could lead to a hand full of glass shards which is no fun and also doesn’t make for a nice evening at the hospital. Better safe than sorry!”
I look at my sweet little buffalo roaming around on his teeny rocky plain each day. He currently sits on my kitchen windowsill. I want to make more of them!
Fantastic tutorial Julie, and a great post on this lovely blog of yours, April.
~Meg
Hi Julie,
This is a beautiful instruction post and I would love to share it on my blog. I think everyone would really love it.
Best!
Lauren
This is awesome! Thanks so much for the tutorial. BTW, you can usually find some really interesting shaped lightbulbs (and really large ones too) from playhouses, theater groups and the like. They have a big theater garage sale in Freemont (near Seattle, WA) every once and awhile where you can find odd shaped theater bulbs and the like. I have a few in mind and I can’t wait to try this out. Thanks for the idea!
Oh, excellent suggestion! I bet those big theater bulbs would make a really funky and pretty rad bulb shape to use. Thanks for your thoughts
That is an excellent idea! I work for a green builder so I am always looking for ideas on unique recycling projects. Have you tried using burned out bulbs and does it make any difference to the finished project?
this looks like oh so much fun! what a cute project
I would add– wear gloves while performing the delicate work on the bulb, they’re stronger than most people expect but a slip with the screwdriver could lead to a hand full of glass shards which is no fun and also doesn’t make for a nice evening at the hospital. Better safe than sorry!
I would absolutely agree with you. Thanks for the note! I’m going to update the bottom of the post with your wise advice.
This must have taken you a lot of time. Thanks for the great share.
Wow that looks like the kinda think I could NEVER do so jealous.
These are so cute! What a great idea!
No… freakin… way!!! That is awesome. I am SO doing this with my kids!
Thanks for the wonderful idea! your lightbulb terrarium looks amazing…love the unicorn. Cannot wait to try this!
This is so awesome!!!
I looked at it and, at first, was about to just leave. But it slowly caught my attention, and now I’m totally stoked on going out and getting all the necessary supplies to make this! So cool.
Hi April, this is absolutely wonderful and as soon as I read it I thought “I haven’t thrown out that lightbulb yet!” and instantly grabbed it to see if I could remove the innards. It was one of those pearl bulbs, but when I rinsed it it was just like a powder on the inside so now it’s clear. I wouldn’t have used a pearl one anyway, just wanted to see if I could do it. I dunno if all pearl bulbs are made like that, mine was from Morrisons, but might be worth a try rather than throwing them straight out =)
Also here is another fun lightbulb bud vase project that might interest anyone who likes this, by Tim Park: http://readymade.com/projects/article/lightbulb_bud_vase
Oh, and I know I’ve rambled on long enough, but does anyone know where to get those little silicone bumpers in England? I saw some for sale online, but there were no dimensions. Thanks for any help! And thanks for a great craft =D
I’m going to suggest the fine people at CrashSpace LA try to make these on Sunday CRAFTERNoons. I’m going to have to steal sand from Venice Beach. I hope that’s not illegal.
We totally yoinked sand from Baker Beach. I doubt it’ll be an issue so long as you’re not removing the sand via dump truck or bull dozer.
Wow! THAT is sooo cool. I love plants and especially terrariums, but to be able to create one in a LIGHTBULB! SO COOL! Thank you for posting!
Wow really cool blog! You should check mine out. It might be good for a laugh.
WOW this is awesome. i have seen these before, but not with the details you show i can’t wait to try this, but i got a question should i wear a mask, and i ask this cause i just told my husband that he is doing to be part of this but he said no way, cause of the poisons inside, is this true, can you find out, or is he just wanting to play at , being lazy, but i am going to still try it.
What a fun project. For an encore can you show us how to build a ship in a lightbulb?
Great article.
Looks neat. I may do one of these with my daughter on our next snow day.
Hi everyone, thanks for reading the post, and I’m glad that so many of you are going to try this! I’m selling terrariums on Etsy if you’d rather just have me make one for you.
http://tinyterra.etsy.com
@Cindy: Incandescent bulbs are totally safe to open. The gas inside is not harmful at all. Just be sure to not use fluorescent bulbs and you’ll be fine.
April, these are super cute. Did you sand down the edges of the glass at all before you started placing the plants?
Negative. You can get the edge pretty well removed if you break it out with the screwdriver. It sounds precarious but dragging the screwdriver around the edge to break the nasty bits off works. Of course, you still have to be careful and I wouldn’t recommend shoving any fingers in. We depended mostly on tweezers to place items within the bulb to avoid ouchies.
A truly great idea, it would make an awesome ornement!
WOW thats so cute!
Im going to try this, but im sure that i ll fail
You’re great.So we can yet make something out of such rubbish that litter our environment here? We don’t need to waste money to buy new bulbs dead ones’ll definitely do.
Great idea! I love making little greenhouses, but have never thought of making one in a light bulb.
great instructions – great blog thanks
Great reusable project for teens! It’s also beautiful to display. Thanks for documenting process.
Could you use colored light bulbs??…i have a rainbow one. or would that just look stupid…?
real cool of you to be so step by step,Ironically I’ve done floral designing for most of my working years but am ignorant when it comes to green plants…I just moved into a studio & was thinking while I was driving that I’d like to do a terrarium,& finally ended up on your site, real cool…I’d like to give you a site to visit that you might enjoy for future projects it’s “MOSS ACRES.com”,hope I could help you for future projects,CHOW!
Just wanted to add that if you have burned out bulbs that are frosted, they can still be used for this craft. It is very easy to remove. After getting the inside components out take a tablespoon or more of table sait and shake or swirl it around to remove the frosted coating. Comes off pretty easy, and you can still reuse a product you might otherwise throw away. Good Luck!
Tremendous idea! I will make to myself such object on a desktop. Very conceptually and harmlessly.
You finished project is sooo much cuter than the original that was posted in the apartment therapy site! nice work!
I love it, got lots of bulbs here for my polymer clay projects so gonna use some for this wonderful project of yours and will redirect your tutorial from my place….Salut
Hello,
This is an absolutely brilliant blog! I am so inspired I’m about to launch big time into terrariums…
Thanks!
Roberta
amazing. thanks for sharing.
Great and fun tutorial!
Thank you for sharing…I can’t wait to make myself one of these!
Claudia Olivos
Very well done. I love your voice, very witty and succinct. Going to do this with my daughter.
Hey there,
Cool stuff…Think I’ll make one of these for the kitchen shelf.
Thanks, stop by and say hello sometime…We’ll show you how to sell these Online.
Later,
Mitchell Dillman
http://mitchelldillman.com/partner-with-mitchell/
I remember seeing this when you first posted it, then today I was stumbling and found it again. It’s awesome!
What a great project. Thanks for sharing.
LOVE IT!
This is so freaking cool – I bet you could recycle an old burnt out bulb instead of using a brand new one.
If you’re looking to expand plant selections for this project, you can drill holes into the bottom of your lightbulb with a Dremel Tool. I put 5 into mine, and I can use a variety of plants that enjoy a little more water. Before you put any soil into the bulb, however, you need to cover the holes with moss, or else you’ll lose your soil. I’m growing miniature African Violets in my bulbs! Lots of fun!
A word of caution on the drilling part- go nice and slow, and don’t push very hard. Don’t forget to wear a glove for this one…
Yikes, that sounds dangerous!