Let there be light (Ruby Stained Glass Notes #10)

Hey Ruby friends,

Welcome to episode 10 of the Ruby Stained Glass Notes. Last time, I finished the square panel and got all philosophical about the craftsperson’s curse (wanna know what it’s all about?).

If you’re new here, you can sign up to this pop-up newsletter about this crazy project of mine: a limited-edition stained-glass panel celebrating Ruby.

Why no episode last week?

There was no episode last week because I was off on a bike trip with some good friends. And that trip turned out to be… quite the sandbag!

I initially signed up for an 80-kilometre ride with nearly 3 kilometres of elevation. Believe it or not, I actually thought I could do it with zero training. Which shows that middle-aged men like me always have too much confidence in their abilities. 😅

Mercifully, I was able to bail midway. After two grueling hours of pushing and carrying my bike on the meanest of trails, my body informed me that pushing on instead of backing off would result in me passing out. I left my friends to carry on and went home to lie down for a bit (ie 24 hours).

Now that my ego has come down a couple of (hundred) notches, let’s talk about the Ruby stained-glass.

Rubber-ducking with Philippe

This morning my friend Philippe Creux — also a talented Ruby on Rails software engineer — came over to talk about the project. I’d asked him round because I needed someone to bounce ideas off. A few things stood out from our conversation.

First, between the two versions of the panel, we both agree the square one is too “crafty and stained-glassy”. We also agreed the freeform version is more fun and has the potential to become something other than just a stained-glass panel.

Let me elaborate on that for a minute.

On Thursday, I knocked together a quick-and-dirty wooden stand to hold the freeform panel. It’s a square block of oak, crudely made from scrap wood lying around the garage. A proof-of-concept if you will.

We started playing around with the panel and the stand for a bit. Philippe put his flashlight on the stand, behind the glass. And it looked genuinely cool.

That got us talking about how I could add a built-in light and how it would look cool on our desks.

Visiting my local makerspace

After Philippe left, I went to my local makerspace. We’re lucky to have one in our small town. I started talking through what I wanted to do with the people there. The first idea we landed on was a small LED bulb wired to a USB-C socket.

There’d probably be a resistor in between, depending on the power source and what the bulb draws. There’d also be some 3D printing involved because I’d love to hide the bulb under a translucent cover. I don’t yet know which filament to use, or whether opalescent filaments exist at all. I’ll have to look into it.

Doing that would move the piece from “a crafty stained-glass” to a conversation piece you’d put on your desk. It’s made me think of Ugmonk, the company that turns boring stationery into beautiful objects.

That’s the direction I’d like to head in: you’d receive the freeform stained-glass panel with its wooden stand. You’d unwrap it and plug it into your computer. Every time you sat down at your desk and powered on your laptop, you’d have the panel lit from behind on its lovely piece of wood.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like it sounds like a little piece of hygge for your desk.

Building this will require me to learn a pile of new things, so I can’t say how soon it’ll ship for sure. But I’m heading to the makerspace on Monday to talk some more about it and start working on a prototype.

Once that’s done I’ll know the material costs and the weight, so I’ll be able to give you a price. Then I’ll do a soft launch for readers of this list, so you can grab it before anyone else.

Do you like this direction for the project? Hit reply and let me know!

All right, time for me to head off!

Cheers,

Rémi - @remi@ruby.social