I wanted my selfie spot to invoke energy, light, power, and empowerment. Who better to embody all those traits than Wonder Woman? With the new Wonder Woman movie getting ready to hit the streams, I thought it'd be fun to get ready for my movie night with some flashy neon.
I started by making a pinterest board of ideas. People have been making neon signs for decades, and while we're not using real neon, the design principles will be the same. Look around and see what people have done and get inspired.
This stuff will work great for simple designs, curves, and shapes. It doesn't make super tight corners very well, and you'll want to stay away from intricate motifs until you get a feel for what it can and can't do.
Once you have your idea sketched out, it's time to lay it out so it fits as nicely as possible with your neon strips to minimize cutting and soldering.
Cut a 1m piece of string for each of your neon strips. Use different colors to mimic the colors of the strips.
Print out or draw any shapes or symbols you want to incorporate. Size them up or down on your computer before printing until the outline of your shape is the same length as your string (i.e. 1 meter long). I didn't do any math here, just a bit of trial-and-error until I got it right.
I really recommend not skipping this step. You'll be surprised how hard it is to get an evenly laid out star shape if you're working freehand.
Use the rest of your strings and some scotch tape to lay out your entire design. If you're going to cut your neon into shorter strips, you can mimic that with your strings as well.
Pay attention to where the wired ends of the neon will lay out. It will make your life easier if you can cluster all the wires as close together as possible.
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