GALAXY, part 12

[The GALAXY Project is a light-art installation that I’m working on for the next burn. Phase I is essentially a spiral labyrinth consisting of hundreds of glowing rings made of electroluminescent wire.]

I’m still waiting to hear from Benny at coolneon.com about the 5mm (“HELLA PHAT”) EL wire I need to test my theory that these rings can be rigid enough not to need much support, but I realized there was one more thing I could test before building the next prototypes for the rings: the joining of the wires into circles.

The problem, you will recall, was how to join a length of EL wire into a loop so that the join itself didn’t break up the ring of light. Electrical tape or duct tape was right out, so I decided to use hot glue:

Hot glue definitely joined the two ends without blocking the light, but after moving the rings around a couple of times I found that it came undone. With 200 of these things to transport and set up, and no real electrical source out in the middle of Lake Ruby to repair them, I needed a different method.

Fortunately, it was already in my toolbox, so to speak. Although for some reason I don’t have a photo of it, part of the process of soldering the EL wire onto connecting leads involves the use of black shrinkwrap tubing to firmly join the two wires.

Aha! I thought — is there clear shrinkwrap tubing?

Of course there is, and I ordered some. I also ordered a heat gun, because even though you can shrink the tubing with the soldering iron, that is tedious. (Again, 200 of these things, and that’s just Phase I.)

Yes, I have now bought two tools of specific and limited use for these projects of mine.

So, strip the hot glue off, slip the clear shrinkwrap tubing on…

Slip it on around the EL wire, make the connection…

Fire up the heat gun, and presto!

Instant join that is sturdy enough to withstand jostling in a plastic tub, rough handling by volunteers, and — who knows? — maybe even being stumbled over by wandering hippies.