As you all know, Halloween is coming soon! This is one of the most fun and exciting festivals of the year. Everywhere you look, people are preparing for it, making creative costumes, decorating their homes with spooky and scary decorations, and designing strange props to wear or display. The whole atmosphere becomes playful yet a little creepy, which makes it so enjoyable.

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For me, Halloween is extra special because I am a maker. Whenever this season comes, my head fills up with dozens of new ideas for projects. Sometimes it’s decorations, sometimes it’s costumes, and sometimes it’s props. But this year, I reminded myself: focus on building one thing at a time. That way, I could create something more polished and meaningful instead of jumping from one idea to another.

The story of this project really began with one of my earlier builds. I uploaded an Uncanny Eye Pendant, and in the comments, someone suggested that I should try making a Trapped Soul Pendant. The idea immediately caught my attention. When I searched about it online, I found it both spooky and fascinating. That’s when I thought to myself: Why not take this concept further? Why not make the soul inside the pendant feel real, alive, and struggling to escape?

And so, my project was born: SoulCage – The Digital Trapped Soul Pendant. This pendant doesn’t just look scary; it contains animated souls inside. The soul is always moving, always trying to escape from the pendant. To make it even more interesting, there are actually two souls: one male and one female. By pressing the side button, you can switch between them. The male soul is aggressive and furious, he bangs at the glass as if he’s desperate to break out. The female soul is calmer, quiet, and patient, as if she is waiting for the right moment to be released by the owner. Together, they make the pendant feel alive in a creepy yet fun way.

The build itself is simple and easy, even for beginners. It is made from only a handful of components, almost like putting LEGO bricks together. The heart of the device is the Waveshare ESP32-S3 Round Display, which drives the animations of the souls. Everything is enclosed in a 3D-printed case that also holds the battery and a small switch. The switch works in two ways: it turns the device on or off, and it also lets you change which soul is shown inside the pendant.

So, what looks like just a small spooky accessory is actually a tiny digital device with personality and story. It’s wearable, fun, and guaranteed to get attention during Halloween.

Halloween is celebrated on October 31st every year. It started hundreds of years ago with the Celtic festival of Samhain, when people believed that on this night the boundary between the living and the dead became very thin. To protect themselves from wandering spirits, people would light bonfires and wear costumes. Over time, this tradition mixed with other cultures and became the modern Halloween we know today—filled with costumes, decorations, spooky fun, and of course, lots of candy!


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