Special Event Design

Beautiful in Lights

Garrett Walker from Bayside Community Church in Bradenton, FL takes We’ll Have a Ball one step further with this treatment.

Garrett cut the letters out of MDF and covered the front surface with AC ducting/aluminum tape. He bought 4″ diamond plate tape rolls. The tape really helped reflect the lights off the letters.

He used ordinary lighting sockets and 14 gauge wiring to wire it all together. Garrett got the normal, 60W lightbulbs that you can find anywhere.

He used paint thinner on a rag to quickly wash the wattage print off–to give the bulbs a cleaner look. Then he used a separate dimming circuit for every letter so he could light each up independently from the other.

Budget was around $400.

[tentblogger-youtube PDMvPopwc8w]

Twiggy Trunks

17 responses to “Beautiful in Lights”

  1. TheRVK says:

    This set is beautiful. Nice job. The video really shows off what the pit balls look like when you light them from top and bottom. Keep up the great work and don’t be surprised if I borrow a few elements.

    • Thanks for the Encouragement! And please feel free to Borrow! That’s what we did! There’s nothing new under the sun!

      I checked out the link associated with your name. Great video and great Cover!

  2. Mike Fowler says:

    Very nice job! Love seeing the light bulbs spelling beautiful flash and then come down. Well done!

  3. Mitch B says:

    What kind of balls did you use to hang behind the “beautiful” light element? Great work! It looks awesome!

  4. Clint says:

    Can you take a picture from behind the word. I’d like to see how it looks so clean!

  5. Tim says:

    This reminds me of a scaled down version of the Hillsong UNITED stage from their ‘United We Stand’ album. Great effect, love it!

  6. Tim says:

    Also creates a new way of building DIY Jarags without the massive energy consumption! :D

  7. Sam says:

    How did you cut the letters out… what kind of tools would I need to cut that out?

  8. Jon says:

    Great job on the set! Just one question what type of light sockets did you use? We’re trying to do the same type of stage design and can’t find the right light sockets. Any help would be appreciated

    • Thanks for the encouragement!

      I found the light sockets online. I forget what web site. But they are white porcelain sockets. They are mounted with 2 screws, they have 2 simple contact screws for your wiring, and a porcelain piece screws onto the socket part to conceal the wiring. It’s actually not the cheapest rout to go. There are plastic ones at Lowes that are much cheaper, but then you just have to paint them. Hope this helps.

  9. Bruce van ZYl says:

    Hey,

    Can you tell us where you bought the white balls?

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