Ummm, hello, neon pineapple light-up sign? This is what my dreams are made of, no really though, I have some pretty crazy dreams. This sign though, is gold, or should I say pineapple?
Sometimes I surprise myself with the diy’s I come up with. Does that ever happen to you? This neon light for example, only someone who is crazy about pineapples as I am would want a neon pineapple sign in there house.
Materials:
- Piece of plywood
- El wire in green and yellow – I bought both colors in 9ft and found this plenty long enough
- Drill
How to make this neon pineapple sign:
- If your piece of plywood is not the size you wish it to be, cut it down to the size you want by using a saw. Alternatively, if you are picking up your wood at Homedepot they can cut it for you.
- Draw out the pineapple onto the front side of the plywood in pencil. I just free-handed mine but feel free to print out an image online and use it as a stencil. Just as a disclaimer, it will be very very hard to make curved lines so you will want to make sure all your lines are straight.
- Now comes the tricky part, determining where to drill the holes. The wire has to go in and out right next to each other, so you will always have 2 holes side by side. Starting at the bottom left side of the pineapple I drew small dots and labeled each one with a number so I would know where to thread the wire in and out. I’ll go more into how I made the shape below, I just wanted to give a general idea of what you will be doing.
It’s helpful to use string to run through your holes as you go along
Making the pineapple bottom
- This is how I made the outer yellow pineapple shape: I started by drawing a small dot for the bottom left part of the pineapple. Next, using a ruler to make sure the bottom was flat, I drew a second dot about 6 inches away. I drew another dot about a fourth of an inch away from that one and did the same process of using a ruler and drawing another dot about 6 inches away. I made the line go slightly towards the right to start to form the pineapple shape. You will want to follow your basic pineapple outline you drew. Continue this process of drawing a dot and then another one a little further away around the whole outer yellow pineapple.
- Once you get back to the bottom of the outer pineapple it is time to work on the inside hatches. To do this you will work in a similar pattern of creating a dot and then another one further away so the wire can go in and out. I drew my dots close to where the ones were for the outer pineapple as a guideline. So, draw your first dot in the bottom left corner and then your 2nd dot at a diagonal up to the right hand side. The next dot I created was a little further up and then I brought the diagonal back down to the left side. I did this once more so you are ending in the top right corner of the pineapple base. Your next dot will be on the top left side and you will do the same thing going down the pineapple. Make sure you are marking each dot with a number as you will need this to know where to thread the wire.
Making the green pineapple leaves
- Start on the bottom left hand side and draw your dot. move about 6 inches to the left slightly on a diagonal and draw another dot. Draw a dot right next to that one and then move about 4 inches (or more depending on your leaf shape) to the right and draw another. Draw another dot right next to that one and then continue the process of moving on a diagonal to create the leaves.
And the rest:
- Now that you have all your holes drawn, it is time to drill. You will being drilling a hole on every dot that you drew. Safety first! Make sure you do this carefully and safely.
- Once all of the holes are drilled you can sand down any sharp bits.
- Grab your yellow wire and bring it through the first hole that you made. Thread it through to the 2nd hole. It’s kind of like connect the dots, so continue to thread your wire through the holes following the numbers. This is where the numbers come in handy.
- Do the same with the green wire.
- Tape any excess wire to the back of the plywood.
- Erase the pencil marks on the front of the plywood.
- Pop some batteries into your el wire and watch your pineapple glow!
Don’t forget to pin this neon pineapple to make later!
