"Worlds Largest Lite-Brite" -DaVincis The Last Supper Featured in the newest Guinness & Ripleys books!!! Start Price USD 5,000.00 Current Price USD 5,000.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, November 08, 2008 End Time Friday, December 05, 2008 Location Malvern, PA See more about '"Worlds Largest Lite-Brite" -DaVincis The Last Supper' Description Hello, and welcome to my listing for "The World's Largest Lite-Brite"!   A Quick Word on Shipping and Bidding                Shipping by freight with insurance is FREE to anywhere in the continental United States! Prospective international bidders should contact me directly for shipping quotes. Shipping arrangements will be made between the buyer and seller to ensure convenience.                I have “sold” this piece on eBay several times now and the buyers couldn’t come up with funding. Please make sure that you have the funds available for any amount that you may decide to offer.   On to the Main Event!                My name is Mark Beekman. I'm an artist based out of Malvern, PA. My latest & greatest piece, for which this listing was created, is my "World's Largest Lite-Brite"; my modern twist on DaVinci's "The Last Supper". To gain a better understanding of everything that is included in this auction, as well as what was involved in creating this work, please read on.   The Image                The pegged image itself measures approximately 4'9" tall by 9'9" wide and is comprised of exactly 124,418 brand new, original Lite-Brite pegs. After running out of clear/white pegs from my initial bulk peg order from Hasbro, I had to buy out the entire Lite-Brite stock of every Toys-R-Us, Wal*Mart, and Target in a 15 mile radius several times over just to replenish the shortage of pegs in that color.                An actual Lite-Brite toy has a black background which utilizes blank spaces as "black", but does not have actual black pegs. For artistic and Guinness certification purposes, I was unable to leave blank spaces. What to do? Unused pegs were painted black with several layers of a special glossy paint made specifically for plastics. The result is a strong-bonded paint that doesn't chip or flake in the slightest.                The pegs are fixed to the "canvas" with 8 layers of glue. Not just any glue, but non-fogging cyano-acrylate (the most expensive and hard-to-find of the super glues). This non-fogging glue was chosen for its unequaled bonding strength and the fact that it wouldn't discolor the pegs, inhibiting light transmission.   Close-up detail of Jesus' face (at an angle)   Close-up detail of Jesus' face (direct)   The Frame                The illuminated image is accented with a hand-made, hand-painted frame. The frame is constructed of polyurethane crown molding which was desired for itsease of cutting and flexibility. The molding was painted using an antiquing effect giving it the classic look of an aged gold. The frame was cut and set so that it would clear the floor by at least 1/2 inch to ensure its safety during transportation and display set-up.   Detail of frame   The Canvas                The "canvas" is a 5ft. by 10ft. piece of special order perforated sheet metal. Pieces of this size are almost impossible to find. The peg holes, as well as the spacing of the peg holes, are exactly the same as the Lite-Brite toy.   The Lighting System                This piece has its own built-in lighting system! The entire piece is backlit using Cee-Lite electroluminescent panels (brand name was a coincidence!). These 4 panels are basically flat light bulbs! They are each powered by their own inverter box housed inside of the Lite-Brite structure. They are very efficient, low wattage lights that produce the IDEAL brilliant white light for this piece. With 99% uniform surface illumination, there are NO dim areas. Did I mention that they don't produce heat? They are cool to the touch and will not warp the pegs or pose a fire hazard.                The inverter boxes each have their own dimmer switch, as well as "fade" and "flash" settings, should you get tired of the steady glow of the basic "ON" setting. These panels are very energy efficient and all 4 inverters can be plugged into the same outlet or power-strip without posing a fire or fuse-blowout hazard.                Cee-Lites were recently featured in TIME magazine as one of the "Best Inventions of 2006", and rightfully so.                Any light can be used to light this piece and the light panels can be taken off as easily as unscrewing a few screws. Imagine seeing this piece displayed as "stained glass" in a church window!   Cee-Lite electroluminescent panels......... Bendable light bulbs!   The Structure                The foundation for this Lite-Brite is a skeleton built of hand-cut aluminum piping (yes, I said "hand-cut". My forearms are still tired!). The aluminum was chosen for its incredible strength-to-weight ratio. The pipes are joined with aluminum Kee-Lite pipe fittings (another brand name coincidence!). These pipes fitting can be taken off or readjusted with a hex key (included in the auction) very easily if need be. I designed this structure specifically to keep itself upright, despite being front-heavy from all of the pegs. It will remain exactly where you put it without ever toppling over.                The back and sides of the structure have been fitted with a bordeaux velvet covering to keep the piece eye-pleasing when viewed from any angle. The covering can be put on or taken off in about 15 seconds.                The dimensions of the entire framed, finished piece are as follows:                Height - 65 inches (5'5")                Length - 126 inches (10'6")                Width - 19 inches (25 inches with foot stands)   Part of the velvet backing taken off to show the pipe structure   Media Coverage This piece has been featured in numerous newspapers, magazines, and TV news stories. The media coverage that has had me the most excited, however, are the newest editions of the Guinness World Records and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! books. I remember being enthralled by these books as a kid and now I’m actually in them!  According to my conversations with Guinness, the previously held world record Lite-Brite consisted of 62,856 pegs, which is nearly half the size of the 124,418 pegs that were used in the piece listed here. The winning bidder will also receive an original Guinness Record Achievement Certificate.     *That about wraps things up! I also do commissioned Lite-Brite mosaics on a first-come first-serve basis. If you have a specific picture or painting that you would like turned into a Lite-Brite, please feel free to shoot me an email at BeekmanArt@yahoo.com. And, thank you for reading this whole listing!   Place a Bid!