This week I started to make the final version of the planets and the stars. I received the 6 inch clear plastic beach balls and they work great! Each ball uses 2 strings of EL wire which I think fills it up really nice. Additionally, I’ve been able to experiment with different patterns of on each planet. So far, I’ve made 5 planets, below are pictures of a few of them. If all goes well, I hope to do 7 in total which is much more than I initially thought I would be able to do which I am very excited about. The planets are not necessarily representative of the planets in our solar system however I did do one inspired by earth which I think is my favorite so far. I’ve had one issue with the adhesive. The clear tape does not hold the EL wire too well when it is coiled up a lot. This has specifically been an issue with the earth inspired planet and one other (on the left in the photo below) however I’ve just been adding more tape to fix it and I think it’s fine (I still need to fix that one on the left). I’ve also continued making the stars using tissue paper and string lights. I have nearly all of them completed so far (the picture below shows about half the ones I have made). Last week I had the question of whether to use tissue paper on the planets. I’ve decided to not use the tissue paper as I like how they look without it.
My plan is to finish the planets and stars this weekend and then set up the solar system one night next week to document it. I’ll let you all know when exactly I do this in case anyone wants to see it in person. I hope to set it up in the room in the subbasement of fuller. However, I don’t want to just leave it there because a) I plan for it to take up much of the room and I don’t want to inconvenience those who want to use the room during the day and b) everything is run on battery packs (probably around 34 in total) which will be a pain to turn on and off.
The planets look very cool. I really like the wave-like pattern that you have with the planets. One thing that you could look into is a remote switch to turn on all the planets at once, instead of having to turn on each one individually. That way when you present, you only have to press one button, rather than seven. You could also look into hot gluing the EL wire onto the balloons, but I am not sure how well that will work out.
what is your plan for how they will be arranged?
My current plan is to first arrange the planets kind of randomly so that the colors look okay together. Then I will hang up the stars in a way that you could see a couple of constellations from certain angles.
I like the way the EL wire looks on the 6″ balls, that seems like it was a good idea. You might try putting some double sided tape under the EL wire, and then use the packing tape on top, just to give the wire something more to stick to. I think they look really cool without the tissue paper, but if you do decide to use it it might be easy to attach with double sided tape.
It’s great to see the planets and stars coming together.
There are lots of good things to hang stuff off of in FLA17. Fishing line is thin and transparent and could be good for hanging them in an unobtrusive way.
If it’s at all possible I’d encourage you to keep them setup for our final show on Thursday. I don’t think anything else will be hanging up by the ceiling if you want to put them there.
Hi Olivia! These look really cool!! Are you going to pre-arrange the final display? Or you mentioned it would be randomized, so is it like your final vision would be they work in any order?