1970s Disco Party Mirror

October 23, 2022 - November 1, 2022

I like to consider this mirror to be the beginning to my college arts and crafts journey. Though I had recently transitioned towards the arts in my studies, exploring the design major, I had largely lost my focus on personal projects and this creative fulfillment. One random Sunday, however, I stumbled upon a Tik Tok video of someone making a mirror with Disco Balls surrounding it, and I was immediately intrigued. That night, I spent hours online, researching how I could make this: what materials I would need, how long it would take, etc,. Within a few hours, I had all my materials ordered and was drawing out my plans.

The Process:

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Foam the Mirror

The first step in making this mirror, following plentiful research, was making the base for the disco border of the mirror with expanding insulating foam.

Carve the desired shapes

Next, after letting the foam harden for enough time that it was no longer toxic, I carved out the shapes I wanted, making it more even of a surface for the following steps.

Use clay to fill in the gaps

After carving, there were still some gaps in the structure, so I decided to use clay to fill in these empty areas. To make the whole thing smoother, and to avoid having to paint it in a subsequent step, I colored the clay to a dark grey and used it for the whole border.

Apply Mirror Tiles!

After the paint and clay have dried, is to apply the mirror tiles! I chose to use two different sizes of tiles, for the disco balls and the spaces between them. I used 0.4 inch tiles for the disco balls, and 0.2 inch tiles for the space between each disco ball.

Add Lighting

This step was added very spur of the moment. My initial intention was only to mirror it, but, when looking at the final product, I wanted to add an extra flare. So I decided to use the LED rope light I had left over from my Neon Sign project to add a lit border.