Lost Childhood Object

   Recreating someone's cherished childhood object, especially one that has been lost for years, is a very big task. It is an object that is so special that, even though gone, it is held on tightly in a person's memory. Even into one's adulthood, the object holds such great emotional ties that it will never truly be forgotten.

Sophie's (new) Butterfly Night-Light

       While it was initially described to me as a rather plain, rectangular looking night-light, I realized that Sophie's night-light wasn't as ordinary as she made it seem. It had many small details that made it special to her. It was about the size of a cellphone, with a simply designed, white butterfly at its front, and red, blue, and green colored lights shining from its different sides. But, most importantly, its comforting presence was that which stood in place for her parents every night as she went to bed. Seeing as light itself can represent that warm and comforting presence that she received from her night-light, with the materials available to me, I set out to make it a working night-light that was as accurate in detail as the real thing. I hot-glued thick strips of cardboard to make the objects frame, glued together pieces of a plastic water bottle on each side to let the light through, added clear red, green, and blue plastic sheets to the top, right, and left sides to create different colored light, and stuffed string-lights in the center of the object to make it glow as a night-light should. Seeing the final product, I am very proud of how it turned out and I hope it brought Sophie good memories about her childhood.

Receiving My Lost Childhood Object 

    My own lost snowglobe that was recreated by Sophie, while not entirely accurate in size or shape, did bring back happy memories for me. I could tell that Sophie focused on the aspects that were truly important to me about the object: its bright blue color and the two dolphins in the center that looked like they were leaping out of the water. I told her how I had envisioned myself being able to swim with real dolphins when looking at that snowglobe, so I thought it was very thoughtful to make sure that element was present. Seeing the new snow globe really made me smile.