DJ Fire Play Set
We moved across the country in Oct 2020 and one of the first items we furnished our apartment with was a couch from Ikea. The couch parts came in two large cardboard boxes and we knew we wanted to save them to eventually make a DJ set for Callia since she recently started calling herself DJ Fire.
We turned one of the boxes into a temporary light box so we could diffuse a light for a video project. We used the other half of the box to make smaller boxes to make four speakers.
The first item we made was the headphones, but it we saved it to be the last gift she opened as an “accent” to the turn table set. We cut four circles pieces and four strips. We scored one side of the strips so that they could bend easier. Then we used the glue gun to add a few decorations. Luckily, we had just recently purchased headphones and the cardboard set happened to fit perfectly.
The next thing to tackle was the turn table set. Mary Anne always thought it was funny that the buttons and switches on imperial ships always look so simplistic. So drawing inspiration from Star Wars, we decided to make simple features, but we wanted almost everything to be functional.
Knobs: We cut off the tops of bottles so that the caps could still spin
Mix Faders/Sliders: We cut slits in the box and cut pieces in the shape of a capital letter i. We dropped them halfway into the slits and then rotated them.
Switches: These didn’t turn out great, but they can still move back and forth.
Turn Tables: We layered 3 circles so that the discs could rotate easier rather than being flush with the box
Tuner: This isn’t actually something featured on a DJ turn table. They’re normally found on keyboards, but we had extra pieces from making the headphones so we thought it could be cool to add. We cut a hole in the piece and one of our brushes broke half way through the project so we used the dowel rod from the handle to suspend the piece so it could rotate.
Easel: This piece doesn’t move, but we wanted to make a place for her ipad to sit.
Turn Table Stand: We suspended her name plate so that we could insert a spot for a bluetooth speaker
Image of Baby Callia and her first “DJ Set”
For the last part of the gift Joe took the lead on arranging a mix of a few of Callia’s current favorite songs, a few 2020 hits, and of course a few sound bites from DJ Fire herself.