‘Tis The Season To Decorate Bags With EL Wire

We hope you’ve already got parts on hand for your holiday projects because shipping might be a little slow at this time of year. But if you’ve got a bag and some unused EL wire here’s a one-day project you should try. Make yourself a Tron-inspired shoulder bag, or backpack.

On the right, [PT] is doing fantastic job of modeling with his electroluminescent offering. This is another Adafruit offering that holds your hand each step of the way from designing, to sewing, to wiring it up. This will go great with that glowing unitard he’s been working on.

[Alan Yates] has also done a spectacular job with his Tron backpack seen on the left. He picked up his EL wire on clearance at a place called “big-W” after Christmas last year. They were selling 3 meter segments (each with their own inverter) for just $3. We’re happy he got a deal and even more pleased that he found a use for it.

[Thanks Drone]

14 thoughts on “‘Tis The Season To Decorate Bags With EL Wire

  1. I remember using this stuff like 10 years ago for my car. I simply wrapped it around the seats where the bead is that holds the fabric down. At night when it was lit up, you would feel like you were teleporting to where ever it was you were going. but like Pete said… if you get a kink you notice it right away.

  2. It is kinda close to Wal-Mart. Same deal, really. As far as I am aware there are no Big Ws here in the states (I have never seen one). This would look pretty cool on a few items I have. Thanks for the post!

  3. Who the F cares about Wallmart and their stupid ass logo?
    Seriously

    THIS is a neat hack, but does every EL wire hack need an obligatory glamor shot of some tech dude all lit up with tech looking like he’s all teched up for a big techie night on the tech town?

    Here’s an idea: Show all this EL tech while standing next to a woman.

  4. seeing that this is on a helmet it probably would not look right to use the el film as is and just cut out the logo (pumpkin carving style ) from black paper and use as a mask over the el film.

    it would then look like a square block on the helmet (look like image over a redaction or 70’s to 80’s censorship block)

    but if your project has colors and shapes that would mask the blocky look then using the entire film and masking it off would be ok.

    then it would be a lot safer and last longer as per the comment above about moisture getting into the glowing layer.

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