Fake Fireplace Burning Logs
 


Create the "dancing flame in your fireplace" ambience; completely designed to take you back to your favorite nights sitting around the crackling fire.
note: the more senses you can activate the more likely you'll be able to whisk you and your friends to the  mesmerized land of campfire enchantment.


  •  the fake fire can be recreated using the glowing logs with the rolling "embers", but this overused effect from the 70's is a bit cheesy so I decided to build a more captivating fireplace insert which is complete with dancing flames

Do it yourself

 This dancing flame effect can be created by blowing white silk material into the air and shinning light on it with orange, yellow, and blue lights to create these flames.
 A large coffee can, can have the bottom removed by a can opener and  mount a small computer type of fan in the middle area. attach an upside down v shape of silk to the top of the can. The fan can be purchased at a local radio shack.
Find several small lights that can be focused onto the dancing flame and can be colored orange and blue or yellow. You can purchase many different colors of "Gels" from your local theatre lighting rental company or find a local distributor at the www.rosco.com website.  Gels will provide you color and can be placed very close to your bulbs and can withstand heat very well. 
Don't forget you will need to have your fan can elevated off the floor a couple of inches to allow air flow from the bottom. Hide all of this apparatus in the middle of split wood.

cub scout ceremony fire
This is a photo of our new campfire system (not my homemade one)

 Note:  I used this for a number of campfire re-creations inside at least 5-6 times, but the last one went a little longer then normal as our singing got carried away, and I noticed the burning wood smell was VERY realistic, that was when I jumped up and unplugged my homeade unit and decided that it was time to retire it for the safety of the kids around me. (This is a true story) I started looking for alternatives and found a safer, more realistic, and less hassle of a  unit which was UL certified. When I discovered the price was barely more then I had in materials for my homemade campfire, I began to ask myself why I stressed myself out over when my homemade campfire would really burst into flames. IndoorCampfire.com carries a nice portable indoor campfire (1-888-638-1509)


--sound--
 FREE: the best way to achieve the realistic fireplace sounds is by borrowing a sound effects cd called "Crackling Fire" from your local public library.
or
purchase one of these cd's from Amazon.com
 
 
 
   



 

Other helpful links: Artificial Fires, Fake Fires