Wired up.

"What would Wolthuis say?" Joost asked, as were are both looking up, towards our newly installed, home-made wardrobe lights that.... for some inexplicable reason, flickered.

Wolthuis is the respectable electrician in our village, and whenever we meddle with the plumbing or electric wiring in our house, we ask ourselves what Wolthuis would say about our work, and imagine he would be very disappointed with us.
In this scenario I'm quite certain how he would react: complete and utter exasperation (and if he had had the jurisdiction: revoking our rights to ever meddle with home-made lighting again).

Before you think we are about to burn our own house down, I have to say that Joost is actually usually quite good at it, and that even I have only managed to blow the fuses once.

Nevertheless; I think it would be a good idea if Joost and I got the message "don't try this at home" tattooed on our foreheads, and instead of showing you how to wire something up that could possibly blow up your house (I'll just save that one for a rainy day) I'll show you a completely save electricity-project instead, while still using electrical wire ;)



I always quite loved electricity and plumbing. Even in high school I did quite like the topic, although I didn't realize it at the time, and my mind was more occupied with the magnificence of my teachers mustache, when the poor man was going on about electrons and paralel systems.

I mean: woodwork, laying bricks or building a roof is quite a feat of craftsmanship, but plumbing and electricity have something magical about them: you turn something: and poof: there's light (or in my case: poof, and the fuse is blown). It also helps that they come with all those pretty supplies, weird little things and wire in copper, what is not to like?

So when I found some spare electricity wire, I decided not to chuck it out, but do something with it instead. And so can you, because it's bloody easy.

You'll need:

- electricity wire ( I used about 1 meter)
- wire strippers
- pointed pliers

Normal electricity wire is... not the prettiest thing on the planet. But inside the plastic casing is shinging copper ( My preciousssssss..) So, by using a wire stripper, I removed all the plastic csaing, bit by bit.

Be careful not to cut through the copper inside itself..

oeh, shiny!!!

within a few minutes of destroying the plastic casing, I was left with a good bit of copper wire:

fancy, eh?

Now really all that was left to do was bend it into nice shape! Inspired by this one, I went for a little light bulb. (yes, very uncreative, but my brain is still on holiday, so please cut me some slack!)

sketchy sketch...

I drew a rough sketch on a paper, and starting following the pencil lines with the wire, using  the pliers to make the bends.

juuust like that!

it's really quite easy..

And it didn't take very long before I was left with this:

fancy schmancy!  And completely useless of course, but in a world that invented crochet key chain hangers and loom bands (why, world, why?), I don't think that matters very much. ;)

As I had some wire left, I also bent a candle, just by winging it. Because of reasons. And I mounted it on a apothecary vase, also because of reasons, mainly gravity-related reasons..

And that was it already! A home-made light without blowing the fuses, that's not to like? I' not completely blown away by them ( I mean, they really are quite useless), but they do have quite a decorative, industrial feel about them.

That was my mini-post for today! For a material that really gets chucked in the bin all the time, I think it's quite a good save. And my gears are turning now to make more creative designs. hmmm... Will keep you posted if I come up with something good!

hugs