Steampunk vampire blood box
As part of the vampire costume, I wanted an artificial blood box that would provide blood directly to a vessel in my neck. Sort of a walking snack box for a lady vampire forced to walk among, yet not snack on, mortals. In an earlier post I showed the faux stainglass heart painted on the box lid and the inside painted gold. Here I worked on finishing up the box by adding stuff and sewing it onto a red silk vest so I can wear it over my dress. Here is the old starting image of the box.
First I glued some black leather strips to the back of the box and punch some holes in the strips. This will let me stitch the box to a fabric vest. To decorate the inside, I added a bunch of stuff, but was very bad about taking pictures since basically I just fooled around with stuff till it looked right. My husband wired up three red LED lights, a battery pack and a switch so the whole think can light up. One of the LEDs is inside an old vacuum tube. After adding the wiring, switch, vacuum tube, LEDs and battery pack I messed around with adding other stuff. I added 3 vials of fake blood and needed to figure out a way to hide the LEDs. I bought a small and decorative cheap wood box. The whole box would not fit since the vacuum tube and the bottles were too tall, but I removed the lid to the small box and glued it in to hide the LEDs. This allowed the bottles and the vacuum tube to go under the lid just a bit so everything fit. I drilled a hole from the outside of the box into the upper left corner and ran some plastic tubing into the box. I filled this tubing with fake blood.
I had hoped that the battery pack and switch would not be visible once the box was closed, but alas you can still see them. So I took some of the left over red silk and made a cover for the battery pack and the switch. The cover is put in with Velcro so it can be removed to replace the batteries and turn the switch on and off. I then made a simple red vest and collar out of the silk. I stitched the box to the vest through the holes in the black leather. I stitched a washer to the red silk collar and glued the fake blood filled tube to the washer. The last picture is the box all light up when closed.
First I glued some black leather strips to the back of the box and punch some holes in the strips. This will let me stitch the box to a fabric vest. To decorate the inside, I added a bunch of stuff, but was very bad about taking pictures since basically I just fooled around with stuff till it looked right. My husband wired up three red LED lights, a battery pack and a switch so the whole think can light up. One of the LEDs is inside an old vacuum tube. After adding the wiring, switch, vacuum tube, LEDs and battery pack I messed around with adding other stuff. I added 3 vials of fake blood and needed to figure out a way to hide the LEDs. I bought a small and decorative cheap wood box. The whole box would not fit since the vacuum tube and the bottles were too tall, but I removed the lid to the small box and glued it in to hide the LEDs. This allowed the bottles and the vacuum tube to go under the lid just a bit so everything fit. I drilled a hole from the outside of the box into the upper left corner and ran some plastic tubing into the box. I filled this tubing with fake blood.
I had hoped that the battery pack and switch would not be visible once the box was closed, but alas you can still see them. So I took some of the left over red silk and made a cover for the battery pack and the switch. The cover is put in with Velcro so it can be removed to replace the batteries and turn the switch on and off. I then made a simple red vest and collar out of the silk. I stitched the box to the vest through the holes in the black leather. I stitched a washer to the red silk collar and glued the fake blood filled tube to the washer. The last picture is the box all light up when closed.