Post 47: Discovering EL wire

I was looking into the use of LED lights and LED wire, and in the process ran into that wonderful new invention that is Electro Luminescent Wire:

It comes in various diameters from 1.2 to 5 mm (the 2.3 mm being the best compromise between flexibility and sturdiness),and in a whole range of neon colors. It is powered in AC by a lightweight power inverter fed with AA batteries, that comes in various sizes able to power from 3 ft to as much as 100 ft of EL wire.

I could see one use for our "Light Dream" project right off the bat: glowing wire sculpture. I thought of what Alexander Calder might have done with it, like a whole menagerie of glow in the dark farm animals, or a multi colored blinking circus...
I ordered a 15 ft kit off the Internet to play with, an made a 15" yellow cat that looks pretty neat glowing in the dark:

I used 1/8" aluminum armature wire from the Art Supply to bend a realistic shape based on the photograph of a Sphynx, then bent the EL wire to fit and attached it with tightly wound nylon fishing line.

Now if I could only get a serious Artist interested making a big piece with it...

We could also have a workshop at ARTPLAY and have people make their own stuff, but it would have to be coordinated to make a viable display. A whole zoo could be grazing on the knoll for "LUX SOMNUM"...