Hi,

I sell el wire and while Glowire, aka EL wire or electroluminescent wire is also made in China, the Chinese wire is not nearly as bright. And even the stuff I sell (Lytec wire, the brightest el wire made) is not NEARLY as bright as neon or even LED's.  EL wire is perfect for some applications, but it really does need a dark enough environment.

 

Also, EL wire does not burn out, like a light bulb, but the phosphor molecules crack over time with usage, resulting in a slow dimming effect over time. The statistic I heard was that if you use it for 6 hours/day for 365 days, it will be about half as bright as it started out originally.

 

And to imagine the el wire itself, it is less like a tube and more like a single-strand speaker wire, but instead of black rubber/plastic shielding on the wire, it is translucent and colored, to allow the light to come through. (It is actually one core wire with two tiny hair-thin wires wrapped around it, then shielding around that.

 

You would want to avoid repetitive movement of the wire, because those tiny hair-thin wires will break if bent back and forth too many times. So if you do a lariat, you should probably affix the EL wire to something to shape it, as opposed to actually swinging the wire around like a true lariat.

 

Also, depending on cost, some interesting effects can be achieved using sequencers.  For example, you could have a 3-channel sequencer and power three concentric circles, which might lend to a "magic circle" effect. Or 4-channel, or 5-channel or 10-channel, but that would run into come money. You could use the same color for each circle of wire, or different colors, and different effects could be achieved by either having the wires so close they are touching each other, or spaced out to make the effect visible from a greater distance.

 

As for signs, I have made some of those, but keep the brightness factor in mind, as well as the longevity factor. 

Good sign application for EL wire : sign or symbol used outside at night to point the way to your haunted house

Bad sign application for EL wire : sign used in window during the day or in a well-lit area, where you can hardly tell it is lit.

 

 Ok, sorry to butt in, but I was intrigued by the discussion.

 

-Eric

 

 Linda something I should of remembered at the time for your neon problem is useing 'Cold Cathode Fluro lights;-

http://www.pccasegear.com/category5_1.htm

Which gives you another option.