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This was a very quick hack I made in one afternoon for the Big Chill 2007. A lot of punters dress up for Big Chill and that adds to the atmosphere. I wanted to do something myself that was unique. The simple idea here was to stitch a piece of EL wire to the back of a rucksack to spell the word "Chill". In the first step I printed a cursive copy of the word I wanted and pinned it to the back of the bag.
I then threaded the EL wire through from the inside and stiched it over the top of the pattern. I then tore off the paper pattern leaving just the wire and stitching. Because the wire won't bend round tight corners you have to add some loops to the writing.
Lit up it does look good - outdoors at night its great.
For mobile operation I used 8 AA batteries to power the 12V EL wire invertor that came with the EL wire kit. The batteries last very well - the same set ran the sign all weekend. I also added a random flasher circuit to give a "blinking neon" effect. There is a switch to change between continuous on and blinking so you don't annoy people too much when you sit down. Got lots of positive comments at the festival!
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