After a little bit of brain storming and research on what others had done, I decided upon a purple furry bike, lit with blue EL wire.  I began with a standard bike, and started with some simple modifications at my local bike shop:

• Switching the standard seat to a banana seat
• Adding a sissy bar to the back
• Adding a basket
• Swapping my standard black tires with purple tires

I wanted the banana seat and sissy bar so I could fit a second person on the back of the bike.  I also liked the sissy bar because it made the bike appear bigger and gave it a fun look.  Unfortunately the banana seat turned out to be horribly uncomfortable (even after I added 3 layers of egg crate padding to the top), in hindsight I would have gone without it.   The basket I needed to carry things around, and also to house the batteries/drivers for the el wire.  I didn’t even think/know about the purple tires until I saw them at the bike shop, but as soon as I saw them I knew I wanted them.

Once the bike had all the pieces in place I began covering it with this long purple fur that I bought on ebay.  The process is fairly simple, and doesn’t require much more than the fur and a glue gun.  I learned how to do it in this excellent video provided by Halcyon.

After furring the bike I added three Hokey Spokes to each wheel.  Hokey Spokes are LED blades you attach to the spokes of your wheels.  They blades wirelessly sync with each other to display different patterns that create POV images when the wheels are in motion.  The effect is pretty cool, and can be seen in the video of my bike.  There are a few different companies offering LED blades for your bicycle that create POV images.  Each has their ups and downs.  Having never seen any of the products in person I went with Hokey Spokes because of their low cost, and ability to sync.  However, out on the playa I saw someone with Monkey Lights which were much much brighter, I might try them next year.  For those interested, I’ve listed the different companies that provide LED blades at the bottom of this post.

The next step was adding the EL Wire.  I ended up using quite a bit more than I expected, roughly 65 feet of wire on the main part of the bike, and 20 feet for the front forks and handle bars.   To attach the wire I simply wrapped it around the bike, holding it into place in a few key places using zip ties.  In hindsight I probably would have used purple duct tape instead of the zip ties, as the zip ties are a bit unsightly.  I used separate strands of el wire for the handle bars and front forks so the wire wouldn’t tug while I was turning. This ended up working out well because the main driver I was using (even though rated for 100 ft) started to dim the wire a bit when powering more than 50-60 ft.   So I ended up using 2 drivers paired with 2 battery packs each holding 8 AAs.   I made a little compartment to hold the drivers/batteries using a tiny cooler that zipped open and close, and attached the compartment to the inside of the basket.

So with this longstanding interest, you could imagine my excitement a couple years back find this instructable for an LED Jellyfish Costume.

The instructable was written by a member named deadinsect, and remains my favorite instructable to date.  I originally made my own Jellyfish helmet for Halloween in 2008, but later decided it would be fun to start taking it with with me festivals and shows.  I’ve probably worn it to around a dozen or so shows and as you can imagine it always garners a great deal of attention.   I even met another Jellyfish who had implemented the same instructable at Phish’s Festival 8.  I also made a little miniature jellyfish following the same process described in the instructable, just using a smaller bowl and EL Wire.

If anyone plans on building their own Jellyfish helmet and needs some advice, please feel free to contact me.  I can tell you where I found certain materials, or help with any questions you might have regarding the construction process.  Just leave a comment here, or shoot me an email.  And if anyone else out there has already built their own jellyfish costume or has seen one at a show/festival, please contact me, I’d love to hear from you

Links

• Jellyfish Helmet Instructable by deadinsect
• Video of deadinsect’s original jellyfish helmet
• Video of my eletro-jellyfish-man costume (Halloween 2008)
• Video of some jellies other’s made following the instructable

Doc and I decided to throw a party for both our birthdays. Actually we were going to throw a party either way but why not say it was for our birthdays since they fell pretty close…Sorry for Partying. We are always trying to come up with some fun stuff for our parties and we had a good list brewing: kegs, ice luge, jungle juice, beer pong, flip cup, disco ball with lasers, and jello shots. We were at a bar and they had a photo booth that you would see at a mall and it was fun. It gave me the idea to build our own photo booth for our party. The result was a great party with some AMAZING pics…. Check out my Instructable on how to make it

What I ended up doing was buying an old tux from a thrift store and outlining the jacket with blue EL Wire.  At the same store I was able to find a pretty snazzy blue ruffled shirt to wear with it.  I had already ordered an LED walking cane online, so the final touch was my
hat.

The disco ball hat was an idea I’d been toying around with for a while.  It was a pretty simple idea.  I basically just attached a tiny motorized disco ball to the top of a hat.  To make things a little more interesting added an EL Badge to the front with musical notes, and I covered the hat with silver glitter.   Check out the video below.

Note that the lasers aren’t part of the hat; I just added them to show some of the cool things you could do with it.  I had thought about permanently adding lasers or LEDs but in the end, I liked the simplicity.  If you are interested in detailed instructions on how to make one, check out this insctructable I wrote for it.

Sea of Dream turned out to be a lot of fun.  Really great music and good vibes all around.  I’ll probably go back next year, and would definitely recommend checking it out to anyone who has the opportunity.

If anyone’s got a question about the outfit or Sea of Dreams, be sure to leave a comment, or send me an email, doc@docstoyland.com.

EL T-Shirts rely on the same electroluminescent technology that allows EL-Wire to glow.  They were popularized a few years ago by the “T-Qualizer” pictured below.

However now these shirts are available with a wide variety of different symbols and patterns.  Just like EL-Wire, they require a battery pack/driver to power (typically powered by 4 AAA batteries).  Depending on the driver the lights on the shirt may blink or react to sound.  The sound sensitive shirts are my favorite as its fun to see them light up to music.

Washing these shirts needs to be done by hand, and can be a bit of a hassle, I’ve broken a shirt before by being careless with the washing.  Some shirts come with a Velcro detachable panel on the front, so you can detach the EL portion of the shirt and wash the fabric in a machine.  While this makes the washing process easier, I really prefer the sewn in look as the velcro panels stick out some and just don’t look as good.

I’ve listed some sites below where you can find EL Shirts, but I encourage you to shop around.  There are dozens of online stores that sell them, so it’s worth spending a little time looking around and finding the one that’s right for you.  Typically they run around $30-$35 so don’t pay too much more than that.

Have fun wearing one at your next event.  I can guarantee you’ll be getting a lot of attention.  And as always if you have any questions, please free to email me doc@docstoyland.com or post a comment below.

Online Stores that Sell EL Shirts

• http://www.dreamrave.com/elshirts-c-41.html
• http://www.bewild.com/ilmoansoret.html
• http://www.raveworx.com/Flashing-T-Shirts-c-312.html

In my opinion, anything worth wearing that often is worth lighting up.  So I decided that lighting up my backpack was going to be my first EL Wire project.

To learn how best to sew the wire into my backpack I followed an instructable on sewing EL Wire into garments.   The most important thing I learned from the instructable was the importance of having a plan, and mapping out where the EL Wire would go before sewing it in.  I actually attached all of the wire to the backpack with pins before I began sewing.

All and all, I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  The back pack always receives a lot of compliments whenever I wear it and it also makes it easy for my friends to find me in a crowd.  If I were to do it over again (which I probably will), I would have added more wire to the center of the backpack, as apposed to just along the edges.  I also would have used two different colored wires side by aside, to make the effect more pronounced.

Please post any questions or comments you may have.  Or email me doc@docstoyland.com.  I’d love to hear about similar projects people have worked on.

So here we are 15 years later, and to my delight, lasers are back.  No longer used as a prankster’s tool they have returned for a much more noble cause, Eye Candy.  Anyone who has ever been to a Ghostland Observatory show can testify to the amazing visual stimulation and immense entertainment that lasers are capable of providing.  New, more powerful lasers can do much more than just produce a tiny dot. Modern lasers produce incredible streams of light sure to captivate most anyone who sees them.

These new lasers aren’t just for performers looking to put on an elaborate light show.  The technology has become cheap enough for your average toy happy glow-junky to afford.  The most common ones sold these days are green lasers ranging from 5 to 30 mW, though lasers capable of emitting well over 100mW can be found for purchase online (Note: I do not recommend the personal use of lasers over 30mW, as they can be dangerous if used improperly).

My favorite laser to play with is the 30mW green star pointer.

More than a standard laser pointer, this laser has 2 diffractive lenses sitting atop the pointer which split the beam into hundreds of tiny smaller beams.  This creates of the effect of projecting hundreds of tiny dots (or stars), on any surface the laser is pointed at.  The user can also rotate the top lens to change the alignment of all the dots, much like a kaleidoscope.  It’s not easy to explain this effect with words, so check out this video, it’ll give you a much better idea of what I’m talking about.

As you can see from the video, you can also turn the star pointer into a standard laser pointer by simply removing the diffractive top.  You now have a powerful 30mW laser whose beam is visible cutting through the night sky for up to 8 miles.

Another one of my favorite lasers is the handheld motorized laser pointer.

This laser has a single detractive lens which splits the beam, but also has an internal motor that moves the position of the laser using mirrors.   This has the effect of creating an array of different shapes as the motor moves the laser through a set of pre-programmed patterns.  Again, check out the video below to better see the effect produced by this laser.

Not to be a buzz kill, but I do want to finish by mentioning you should always use your lasers responsibly.  Many of these lasers are quite powerful and can cause damage if exposed to the eye for a prolonged period of time.  Also, please don’t shine a laser where it probably isn’t wanted, whether that is on a person, a stage, or a piece of art.  Irresponsible use of lasers (such as shining them on stage at shows) has already caused them to get a bad rap in certain circles.  Lets use them to add to everyone’s experience, not take away.

So there you have it, lasers are back, get involved.  If you are interested in purchasing one, check out the links below for the best prices I’ve been able to find anywhere online.  And stay tuned for some future DIY posts where I show some cool things you can create with your lasers.

• Star Lens Laser Pointer
• Motorized Laser Pointer

So what exactly is a mind machine? The mind machine consists of two main parts.  Headphones which produce binaural beats, and lights frames which display lights patterns over the wearers closed eyelids.  Together the binaural beats combined with the synchronized light patterns work  to create a process called brainwave entrainment where brainwaves move toward a particular frequency.  What all this means is that the mind machine can be used to induce a variety of states of consciousness.  It can make you relaxed, awake, sleepy, focused or even take you on a journey up and down through different states.

The particular model of Mind Machine I own is called a Proteus.  Its comes preprogrammed with 50 different sessions, each designed to put you in a different state of consciousness.  You can also hook up a CD player to the unit and play Audio Strobe CDs which are encoded to control the light patterns on the lightframes in addition to providing sound.    And for those who want more, you can download additional sessions or even create your own.

Some of the times I’ve used my Proteus:

• To relax when coming home from work.
• At night to help me fall asleep.
• To help me get energized in the morning or before I go out.
• In conjunction with a hypnosis track to make the hypnosis more effective.
• To entertain myself with the auditory and visual stimulation.
• At festival campgrounds to provide entertainment for myself and for friends.

If you are interested in learning more about Mind Machines or potentially buying one, check out Mind Modulations.  They’ve got a few different models and some great info.  That’s where I got my Proteus.

For more information on the science behind it all. Check out some of the following links

• Brain Entrainment – Wikipedia
• Binaural Beats – Wikipedia