Here's a quick explanation on how we started, I hope this is helpful and not confusing for you.
Okay, to begin with we hit goodwills and thrift stores looking for thin tins (holiday Cookie tins) or aluminum pots/cake pans and saved things like perfume caps, screw on milk caps and those clear tops off of bottles of body sprays and hair care products.
Then we saved plastic containers (Large jars) Pretzel, Cheese Ball, containers.
From the hardware store we got cheap light fixtures, steel and copper strapping, the type of tubing you use to cover wires (It's splitdown 1 side to slip the cords into), and rubber grommets.
We bought the specimen prop (heart, hand, Brains etc...) and party light bulbs either 1 color, or flashing multiple colors. Also some of our props were 'bubbling' so we bought dual pump fish tank aerator, tubing, air stones and line sharing T's for these.
We hit Wal Mart for odd shaped 'Bud Vases' and votive candle holders to incoporate into the prop.
Household extension cords The kind that have the 3 plug ins on the head (You'll need 2 per prop, 1 to destroy and 1 for your power source)
We already had craft paints, hot glue and silicone.
Step-1 Find Pot , Jar and prop that seem to match up in size.
Step-2 Plot out how many dials or 'buttons' you will want on the face of the pan. drill out dial holes with a normal drill bit just large enough to get a screw through to attach your dial, You will also need to drill a hole or holes on the side to be able to get your electric cord to the top light fixture(Since this will be cut, a small hole should be sufficient). Drill out 'button' holes with a small boreing drill bit (This will leave a big enough hole that you will be able to stick the bottle top from body spray or hair care products through) to be held in place with a grommet. You will also need to drill a hole this size in the back to fit a normal 6ft household (brown) extension cord through. You will need a 2-3 inch in diameter boreing bit to drill through the bottom(which becomes the top of your base) of the tin (This is your main source of light for the bottom of your speciman jar and an easy hole to fit any battery operated holders through for storage.)
(see this picture to see me with an unpainted bottom with drill and bored holes in it ...)
Step 3- after all holes have been drilled, paint your prop bottom with a base coat of your choosing. (We stuck with black) and then we antiqued or distressed them by using metallic craft paint. At this time we also sprayed the cheap light fixtures, and the jars lids black. It's your choice if you want to craft paint them to make them match even more.
Step 4 - We began to place and glue the items on the base. Use hot glue for a quick stick followed by silicone for the long run. (On a cold night your hot glue will come off the metal too easily) Place the rubber grommets into the larger bored holes and then push your 'buttons'(Caps) through them (Very snug)
Step 5- figure out how your prop speciman will need to be attached.
For our beating heart we added a second wire to balance it and ran the wires out from under the lid that we 'notched' for ease of closing. The battery operated wire was then encased in the cover tubing and slipped under the 'jar' and into the 2-3 inch diameter hole (Yes it is visible through the jar if you look but, we wanted the motion of the beating heart so we opted to keep it battery operated) and the second wire was ran on the other side and encased in cover tubing.
Step 6 - Using an extension cord (Ordinary household type) We cut off the 3-Plug end and shortened the cord so it was just long enough to go from under the base, through the side hole we drilled up to the top of the jar. We threaded it through the screw hole of the cheap light fixture where we stripped the wires and attached them the light fixture. We used black electrical tape to cover any exposed wires.
Step - 7 Using a 10 strand white christmas light set we figured out what color we wanted where( White to make the button colors glow, Orange for the TV test tubes, Red for underneath the heart and painted them with glass paint) Then we glued them to the underside of the base right near the spot we wanted illuminated. General rule was 1 light per item with the left over going to the underside of the prop.)
Step - 8 Plug all items into the extension cord head that you have run through from the back of your prop. If you have a leftover plug in and not quite enough light on your speciman we used Colored christmas C7 bulbs in a night light holder for that extra boost of light.
Step 9- Once you have everthing in working order and in place we 'spot glued' the Light fixture to the top of the jar, the jar onto the base, and we cut out a bottom of corrugated cardboard (To hold all of the light cords and battery packs into the base) and spot glued the base onto the card board. (It will come off for easy repair, battery or light replacement)
I hope this explains if there are any other of the props you would like details on just ask.
