Sparklebrella

If you’re anything like me then all you’ve been thinking about this year is how to make your own LED umbrella. Well, some wonderful sod has come along and provided a step-by-step guide. Seven pages of it. It’s going to take me a long old time.

The list of things you need alone is a bit daunting

• One umbrella, preferably light colored.
• 64 SMD (surface mount) LEDs in your color of choice.
• A spool of thin single strand, lacquered copper wire.
• 3AA battery holder, preferably compact and arranged in an L shape.
• Normal plastic coated multi-strand copper wire.
• One 750 Ohm variable resistor with built-in on/off switch for dimming and turning the umbrella on & off.
• Needle and thread (of the same color as the umbrella)
• Solder and Soldering iron/gun
• Wire cutters, wire strippers, scissors, x-acto knife
• Drill and drill bits
• Large board and small nails, to be used for laying out the wires and soldering the SMD LEDs onto the wires.
• Masking tape and double sided tape/carpet tape
• Clear epoxy or Glue, super-glue

But look at the results! As one of the comments says

It looks like it belongs in a Beck music video.

I know! I know!

Lightbrella

Another day, another idea done better by someone else before me. These umbrellas are from a great range at Bright-Night, who have put a little light inside the canopy which illuminates the water-inspired designs. I’d love to see a crowd of them walking down a dark street, it would maximise the impact of the gorgeous shape that is the umbrella.

Yuckbrella

I suppose I ought to include the bad and the ugly along with the good. I really really love the idea of lights in umbrellas (see below) but I find these a bit naff and unimaginative. Great idea poorly executed. However, I may have to buy one to take it apart to see how it works! My ideas mostly involve having the lights inside the umbrella, but this outer lighting seems like a good way to be seen by traffic at night.