I’ve been really trying to embrace the whole maker/DIY idea both in my life and in my projects. I think that it’s valuable for learning and it’s less wasteful, or at least can be. In this case I wanted to relearn what I had taught myself over a decade ago; the basics of el wire.
I wanted to make something for my wife for her birthday and I’ve had the idea to make this sign for some time now. She LOVES ‘Twin Peaks’ and so do I. And this project was a fun but slightly tricky one.
The original sign from the show blinked continuously. I thought that might get a bit obnoxious in the living room so I had to wire up two separate el wire drivers (one static and one that would blink) to the same power supply. There are two small switches attached to the frame; one that controls the power, and one that turns the blinking of just the ‘J’ on and off.
Once the plans were made I went about building and staining the frame. I was able to get my incredibly talented friend, Erin, to paint the actual One Eyed Jack on the frame. Then it was just a matter of screwing some holes, soldering some el wire, and using a glue gun to finish it. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.