I saw this cool new trend of making freeform circuits out of only components and wires- no PCBs. People were making some amazing things and I had to try my hand at it. After lots of brainstorming I decided to use a 555 timer as an astable multivibrator to make a snowflake flash blue and white.

I designed the circuit - with great difficulty as I am apparently a bit rusty - and prepared a rough layout. As I got building it started to look less like a snowflake and more like a sea creature. So I went with it. As I neared the end, I couldn't help seeing it more as the skeleton of a sea creature (my second mistake). Naturally, I had to give him a skin. I covered the general shape of the circuit in seran wrap and dipped the entire thing carefully in paraffin wax. It didn't occur to me how bizarre the whole thing had gotten until I saw the final product.

And so I present Merlin! If you hook up 5V to his antennae his "fins" will flash alternatively. You gotta start s