The 2007 Snowflake Lights Project
for a Red Snowflake Panel
The Snowflake Lights project will be used to brighten up our display on the front of the garage. They consist of six panels,
each about 4 feet wide by 2 feet high. The panels each have a colored snowflake at the center, additional mini-lights at the edges of the snowflakes to help
enlarge and animate it, and two stars that can be lit separately in the corners of the frame. There will be two panels with red snowflakes, two panels with
green snowflakes, and two panels with purple snowflakes.
The snowflakes are store-bought, but they are clear and we painted the tips with special
paint to help brighten up the final product. Each of the snowflakes has a wooden frame to help package the decoration to help facilitate hanging them on the garage doors.
This is what the final snowflakes look like when lit up. The red snowflake is bordered by green mini-lights and gold stars. Since they are
powered by separate controller channels, the panels will be integrated with the display and animated to the music using our Light-o-Rama controllers.
The snowflakes started our clear, and then we masked off everything but the tips and painted them. This one gets the Purple paint treatment. After
3 thin coats of Krylon Metal X paint and some drying time on each side, we were ready to put the stars back together.
This green snowflake is being put back together on the frame by using cable ties to hold the tips in position. Painting the snowflakes is very time
consuming, but really adds to their beauty. We were concerned that unwrapping the sharp bends in the ropelight for painting and then re-wrapping the ropelight might cause some
malfunctions or wire breaks, but it worked out okay and we were able to finish the painting and re-wrapping the snowflakes in one long day.
After painting, more painting, drying, removing the masking materials, and re-wrapping the snowflake with cable ties to get it back into its
original shape, here's what a finished Purple-tipped snowflake looks like...
Using the star pattern as shown, we started to lay out the pattern on the coro plastic panel. These stars were sized to use exactly 50 mini-lights, so
that corresponds to one complete string of mini lights for each star. The lights are spaced 3/4" apart. amd they are marked on the master paper pattern for hole punching. This pattern
was re-used for the other 5 panels so they'll all use exactly the same layout for the stars.
After the holes are punched in the coro plastic, then its time to start the wiring. The lamps from the string of mini-lights are pushed through
the coro panel to correspond to the holes punched for each element. We use cable ties to help tie up any loose ends, to steady the plugs, and to provide strain relief. It took
about 3 weekends to build up the six panels needed for the display.
Finally, here's a view of all 6 completed Snowflake Panels that are framed up, painted, wired, and ready to go. These will be mounted on our
garage doors and will help provide an animated backdrop for the portion of the display located on the driveway. After constructing the panels, we decided to replace the blue lights
in the stars with gold color lights for a better appearance. Thanks for looking, and we hope you can pay us a visit to see the Belardo Lights snowflakes in person this Holiday season!