Wire I Doing This?

I have no idea. It must be a masochist thing. Wiring is the first thing on the tree and it makes snarling werewolves of us all. This picture on the border is a perpetual motion tree. This type is a favorite with the kids and the press. There is a lot going on. The ball bearings travel up the screw, bounce down the xylophone, whip through loop de loops. Spin through labyrinths...drop in the cup, travel up the screw. . . . Three ball bearings are always in the air. Two years ago the perpetual motion was a working skeleton clock in a grandfather clock frame. I remember the original perpetual motion over a decade ago. It had a single scoop, made from a 2 liter bottle, catching a single ball bearing. It took hours of fiddling to make sure the ball bearing didn't escape.

If you didn't pay attention to the caption or see the alternate text with the picture, I'll repeat it. ''Nasty, kuckky, iccky, poo-pooh''. There are 6 strands 100 lights per strand cooking up one heck-of-a-short circuit in this picture. ?Why does everyone in America read the cereal box, and ignore the one with a ''UL'' warning on it? This type of wiring has melted carpets, blown fuses, and blown out lights un-numbered. The Festival instructions told the decorators to use ''new lights''. That was a decade of rolling blackouts, and torn out hair. Then I revealed my secrets of wiring. I shall now reveal this Hidden Wisdom, my child; it is a Pearl of Great Price. Read the box!

All mini light boxes state - ''no more than three strands end to end''! I have never seen a strand of 2.5 volt max UL lights that can withstand more than three lines plugged end to end. The maximum power the entire line can carry is just above 40 watt. As a matter of fact I've never seen an add on ornament that can plug more than 3 into a single strand. The manufacturer's website probably has H1 size program headlines screaming no more than 3 end- to-end.

And still ....Well look at the photo. The mamma octopus of all wiring jobs I've ever seen had SIX 100 per strand mini lights on a single plug head. The home owner (can you believe it!) had cut the plugs off the ends and wired them into a single plug. The intention was to have one plug to yank when switching off the tree. Yow! the fuse was melted into the plastic housing. The neighborhood should have smelled ozone that night! I have no idea why that tree was spared instant immolation. I have no idea why the human didn't get a dramatic lesson in spontaneous combustion 101.

Correct Wiring This is the way to wire a tree. This picture shows plug in for 8 happy little strands, with room for another 4. The moral is - USE A POWER STRIP or surge suppressor. Notice the red toggle button? It can be flicked off with your toe. There is no need to pull a single plug to bed the tree down for the night. Its a great way to avoid deep knee bends when you don't have a switch that cuts power to the outlet. See how no more than 2 plugs are end to end? There are 800 mini lights on this power strip. This is the end of over watt blow out. Now its time for the 3 prong adaptor and extension cord. Home displayed trees seldom need the extra line. Display trees seldom can make it to the power port without the extra cord. Don't forget your adapter. Power strips have 3 prog plugs. Affordable extension cords have 2 prong power ins.

Do you remember that wire is your friend? Forget it. When it comes to transporting a theme tree - wire is Mr. Hyde. It reaches out and snags every door knob on the route. See the stand section on how to use a tree bag. Many Festival decorators do the lights before they come to the convention center. I only did that once. I took two steps from the car, and 1/3 of my lights were yanked off! Others buy the pre wired trees and risk the lousy display job.

Divide the tree into 4 quarters, north, south, east, west. Divide your lights into quarters. Plug in a strand. Now gently draw it into the tree and start at the top. Work from the top down to the bottom only in that quarter of the tree. When you run out of lights near the bottom, start another strand. Weave the strands over and under the branches. Keep the tension loose. Wire is your friend again. Use a 22 gage covered florist wire to fix the strands to the center and ends of the branches. Don't cinch too tight. You don't want to cause short circuits. You now know where the power is coming from to each branch. You don't have to pull a plug to find an offending line. It's easy to place motion ornaments without overloading the lines. And best of all, when you are 100 feet away the tree is evenly lighted.

MIXING LIGHTS
Candle & Mini You can get good results with the candle mini lights mixed with the regular lights. There are some that plug directly into the mini light socket so you can put them where they look best. In a pig's eye you can! Read the box. No more than three plug ins per strand. They draw extra power and can blow out the whole strand. They won't blow it at once. The short circuits wait until the tree is 75% decorated before blowing out.

I have used a rolled up paper shaft for a candle, and pulled the white light into position with a crochet hook. The first time I tried this I set the light bulbs just above the edge of the paper. It looked glorious. The candles were where I wanted them. They looked like candles. And they were standing up straight. Hooray! Five minutes later I smelled something burning. It is a fact that the brightest part of the light is the hottest. Guess where the brightest part of the light is located? I frantically peeled back the paper and tried to shape it into a melted wax formation. My hand rolled candles no longer looked better than their plastic counterparts. I have successfully placed 14'' taper candles on trees. See the ornament section.

Shoot the Works Underexposed
Shooting the works is the best description of this light mix. I was working with a translucent sugar ornament. They were hollow balls with transparent pictures in them. I wanted the Festival visitors to see that there was something inside the balls. The tree was a memorial tree for my grandfather. He loved sports. One of the pictures showed my uncle holding up a mess of trout and my grandfather holding a measly 6'' throw-it-back. So I set the deluxe mini lights dial on fade in and out. As the lights got brighter the pictures shone through the peepholes. This is an existing light picture. The large, and bubble lights are almost overexposing the picture. The mini lights are just becoming visible. There was enough light here to stand out from the 100's of white light trees.

The base lighting was filled out with 600 regular mini lights. At the tips and mid branch I ran two strings of large house lights mixed with bubble lights. Instead of icicles, I clipped fish over the mini lights on the tips of the branches. I found the pink light inside made the fish look more like a rainbow than a white light. These came from the ''Mess of Trout'' kit for mini lights. I have seen all kinds of these plastic clip ons ranging from candy shapes to chili peppers.