Yes, I admit it, I am a Star Wars nerd. So this "experiment" was an extra fun one for me. The idea of customizing my own lightsabers how I want with my own hands? It was like an art project - that lights up!
Up until this point, I really didn't have too much experience painting paper - let alone metal lightsabers. So although it was a bit daunting, I was so excited to get started and had a bunch of ideas I wanted to try.
I experimented with washi tape, paint pens, acrylic paint and enamel paint as I went through this trial-and-error process. What better way to learn than to jump right in? I just relied on the Force to guide me. 😉
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A WHOLE NEW PAINT JOB
Several of the lightsabers I customized received completely new paint jobs that I hand-painted myself. This saber is one of the first that I did and it is still one of my favorites to this day.
I painted the body using acrylic color change paint and I added various accents using decorative washi tape. I also added a leather wrap and some metal feather charms:
*The original saber is Ultrasabers' Initiate LE v4 (no emitter windows version) hilt.
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Getting Crazy with Washi Tape
Another one of my earlier customizations, this one was painted with acrylic paint again with many washi tape accents. The white wrap on the hilt was done with electric tape.
I may have gotten a little carried away with the washi tape on this one, but I actually still really like the end result.
*The original saber is Ultrasabers' Initiate v5 hilt.
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Not All Smooth Sailing
This saber was another early attempt. One that didn't go as smooth as I would have liked - particularly the copper paint on the emitter that I put on too thick causing some hiccups - but that's part of the learning process! I'm still quite happy with how it turned out.
I used acrylic paint (except for the copper on the emitter which I believe was enamel paint), washi tape, a leather wrap and a metal feather charm.
*The original saber is Ultrasabers' Apprentice v5 hilt.
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Let's Do a Redo
This saber was painted once in one of my earlier attempts - and then repainted later after I had learned more. For this particular hilt, I did not choose the blade color (orange) as it was a freebie included in an order. So part of the challenge was making design choices that would work with this blade color.
This first attempt was done using acrylic paint, washi tape and electric tape (for the wrap) as well as a rhinestone on the switch. It was a warmer color scheme - but I wanted to try something different the second time around.
I loved the teal enamel paint color that I used for another saber I painted (you will find it in a separate section below) and I wanted to see how it would look with the orange blade.
Here- I used washi tape, a leather wrap, paint pens and rhinestones to add the accents which were in gold, red-brown, and orange to help tie the everything together.
*The original saber is Ultrasabers' Initiate LE v4 hilt.
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A Hint of Pearl
Later when I began using enamel paints, I fully painted this saber by hand and added gold accents. But that wasn't all: I also carefully cut out and added mother of pearl into the slots on the switch section of the lightsaber.
This was something I wasn't sure that I would be able to pull it off - but I love how it turned out!
*Middle left photo shows a better view of the mother of pearl slots.
*The original saber is Saberforge's Bastion hilt.
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Bring It All Together
This lightsaber was painted after I had been experimenting for a while but I went back to this particular acrylic paint because I loved the color. There was a little bit of everything with this one: full body paint, washi tape, leather rap, charms and rhinestones.
*The original saber is Sabertrio's Reaver hilt.
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JUST NEEDS A FEW TWEEKS
Not all my customizations were fully painted. For some of them, I just added accents and/or made little tweeks to the design.
A Little Gold Never Hurts
This lightsaber, for example, was not a full paint job. I added a grey wrap contained between two o-rings that I painted gold. I added various other gold accents including some gold writing around the grey wrap on the hilt.
*The original saber is Saberforge's Arbiter hilt.
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Simple but Beautiful
As almost a contrast to the gold-themed saber above, this saber had a frost-colored blade with silver and ice blue accents.
Though the accents are few and subtle, I feel they give the lightsaber a sort of mystical feel.
*The original saber is Saberforge's Oracle hilt.
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A Lightsaber Fit for a Princess
This saber was inspired by Princess Leia's lightsaber design. It was also my first lightsaber with a neopixel blade that fluctuates and has the option for you to change the color of the blade (I chose purple).
There were several versions of this saber design floating around at the time made by different companies, but I liked the rose gold color of this one. There was only one problem: it did not include the pearl slots on the hilt. I decided to add them myself.
*The original saber from Custom DarkWolf Sabers.
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Jet-Inspired Design
Sabertrio's Vektra lightsaber is a jet-inspired design that gave me the idea to customize a lightsaber based on one of my favorite jets: the F-86 Sabre.
I didn't add much to the design - just some yellow accents that I painted onto the lightsaber - but I personally loved how this simple change transformed the saber.
The jet theme fit well with the amber-colored blade.
Before and After photos of the lightsaber as well as the jet that inspired this paint scheme.
*The F-86 photos were also taken by me at an airshow in Youngstown, Ohio.
*The original saber is Sabertrio's Vektra hilt.
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DESIGNING PIECE BY PIECE
Saberforge has lightsaber parts that you can choose to have assembled together and shipped to you. You literally get to choose the look of your lightsaber instead of choosing a specific hilt design that is already put together. I really enjoyed this extra customizability - and it allowed me to personalize my lightsabers even further.
Here is one example: I chose each of the section pieces for the emitter, switch, hilt and pommel. I then chose the blade color as well as the color for the leather wrap. This particular saber was also one I chose to have powder coated - so I didn't paint this one myself but I did choose the color of the powder coating (in this case: seafoam green) and added gold accents once it was delivered. I also added some charms on the pommel.
Here is another example of one of these sabers that I chose powder coating and added gold accents later:
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All According to Plan
This customized saber was painted by me, however, and I added a few other accents as well that I thought went very nicely with the bright green blade.
At this point, I had learned a lot from my art experiments thus far and really took my time on this one. This was probably one of the cleanest results I've had where things went almost all according to plan and turned out just as I had hoped.
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A More Involved Design
This next customized lightsaber was also hand-painted by me. It was probably the most involved customization I had done. I painted the entire body with enamel paint and added many accents with a gold pain pen as well as some charms.
This particular saber also included an exposed crystal chamber!
The blade plug shown is a glow-in-the-dark crystal-shaped blade plug that I found on Etsy.
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LIGHTSABERS AND...INTERIOR DESIGN?
Yup, that's right! I don't just stop at painting the lightsabers -- I incorporate them into the interior design of my home whenever possible. Some are on stands, some are hanging from bookshelves and others - like the following examples - are hung up on my walls using broom holders.
Some might find this choice of decor odd - but I find them to be another source of inspiration!
