The Warp Hat, my first EL wire creation
To all the people who have been telling me “dude, you should run a class on that stuff” for the last I-don’t-know-how-long: guess what?
…no, I haven’t built a mega-death-ray out of lasers yet, but thanks for your interest.
I’m running an EL wire class!
Come along and build your own toy, hat, glove, or what-have-you that you think should glow. Don’t have a design in mind? I’ll have all the materials you’ll need to make a UFO that you can dangle from a fishing rod over people’s heads.
Even if you’re doing your own design, I’ll provide 3m of wire and a 2xAA battery inverter.
Topics I’ll be covering
- How to make a design that works in the medium
- What base materials are suitable
- Electrical basics, including matching inverters to your wire
- The nitty-gritty of soldering power leads to your wire
- Actually attaching wire to your base
Where and when is this?
The class will be held on Saturday 19-07-2014 at 10:30AM at HSBNE‘s Port Hack campus. We’ll be making use of their classroom and electronics workbench.
Port Hack is at 217 MacArthur Ave, Eagle Farm QLD.
Exactly what materials are provided?
Everything you need to make an EL-lit UFO:
- 3m of EL wire
- Power leads, copper tape, solder, heatshrink and such
- Battery-powered (2xAA) inverter
- Plastic bowls, glue, etc.
I have an idea but little experience, can I make my own design?
Of course! Keep a couple of things in mind though:
- Soldering the power leads takes a while if you haven’t done it before, so you might not be able to finish a complex design during the class.
– This is fine, of course! Just don’t expect to finish your complicated line-art — or two-metre-wide UFO complete with aliens in the cockpit — in one morning. - Stiff or rigid base materials are easier to work with, especially for beginners.
– Plastic masks work well, as do stiff hats or bike helmets.
– If you’re planning to attach wire to fabrics, the best attachment will be by sewing. Note: Sewing is not covered by this course. - 3 metres of wire may sound like a lot, but once you start making shapes out of it you’ll notice that it’s not as much as it sounds like! That hat pictured at the top uses 2 metres of each colour.
What’s this gonna cost me?
The price is $15, which is just enough to cover costs. The tiny amount of profit made will be donated to HSBNE.
Sweet, where do I sign up?
Sign up and prepay on the Eventbrite page. If you’re a member of HSBNE, you can pay cash on the day so long as you RSVP in the forum thread.
See you there, luminous ones!