People keep asking what EL wire is. Well it's flexible wire that, when powered up, looks something like a flexible version of larger, neon tubing. You can set it to burn steadily, or to flicker. It can run off batteries. It can be draped over an event leader, sewn onto clothing, and so on. Very nice stuff, if there's a bit of darkness.
The magic of EL wire is in the sequencing. It's lovely visually just being on, but multiple channel sequencers give the impression of movement, or basically, animate the stuff. The archtypical place one sees EL wire done as mobile art projects is at night on the open desert at Burning Man. The most common costume one sees that illustrates EL wire animation is the large butterfly wings seen all over the playa. One mounts, say, five separate sets of wire, from a wire outlining a wing in the downbeat position, all the way to one in the upbeat position. With the sequencer first lighting and unlighting the first, and going through the whole of the sequence of the five positions, you have the image in your mind of flapping butterfly wings.
If you feel like buying any, there are vendors around
the country. There's a convenient one in Oakland, CoolNeon, and many
of their products are intended for the novice. Premade, simple stuff.
A disadvantage to CoolNeon is that even with occasional special group or
special event discounts, some of the prices are very, very high.
On the other hand, if you're a complete novice and don't want to do any
work of your own in creating an EL project, CoolNeon (http://www.coolneon.com)
is ideal for you. If you want reasonable prices, Coolight.com is
the place to go. Coolight caters to people who know what they're
doing, although they're also happy to deal with novices. And they
have the best prices I've encountered. Some of CoolNeon's products
are purchased from Coolight, I've been told, which gives you an idea of
the markup differences between the two. Coolight is also civil and
happy to deal with ill-experienced but enthusiastic customers, whereas
I've heard many complaints about CoolNeon. And had mixed experiences
of my own.
Here's a writeup from a vendor's site:
Electroluminescent Wire (aka EL wire, rope, cable, string, fiber, etc.) consists of a concentric series of layers, each performing a different function. In the center is a solid copper conductor. The copper conductor is coated with an electroluminescent phosphor. Two very fine wires are wrapped around the phosphor. A clear or colored plastic sheath comes next, and a second plastic sheath surrounds the first. The functions of each of these layers are as follows:
EL wire acts as a capacitor, with capacitance proportional to the length of the wire segment. This means that given a constant voltage, power consumption is proportional to frequency. Light output is also roughly proportional to frequency. See the appropriate table for a more accurate guide to the relationship of light output to frequency and voltage.
The spectrum produced by some types of EL wire varies with the frequency
of the applied power. Those that are filtered (have a colored inner sheath)
vary less in color. The "aqua" ("ice blue") wire is most sensitive; its
color can be varied from deep green to deep blue by varying the power frequency
from 60 Hz to 6 kHz. Due to its capacitive nature, to maintain constant
brightness as frequency is swept the voltage must also be varied, from
high voltage at low frequency to a lower voltage at high frequency.
For more events Eros puts on, plus other general information
about events, check out main events page at http://www.laughingbear.org