Throughout the year, I’ve been trying out a range of lighting options. Well, I say trying out, but in fact, some of the time the lights have simply failed, leaving me no other choice but to try out something new! I use the lights to both attract customers to my stall and to provide a backlight on dark days, not forgetting to add that bit of Christmas sparkle.
Of course, I’ve used the traditional set of fairy lights – a craft stall staple. They come in either white light, warm light, or multicolored lights. I always prefer warm white lights. They worked really well, were rechargeable and even have a handset so you could dim them. My problem with the fairy lights was that they were not robust so during the rush to pack up, the fine copper wires got bent and then the lights failed. So, I decided to buy another set and attach them permanently to the inside of my doll’s house. This worked fine until, again, when packing up, boxes pressed against the lights and caused them to fail.
Next I tried the strip lights you buy to add ambience to a room and are usually stuck on the back of televisions. Once again they offer a range of colours and you can choose repeat patterns, colour and reactive to sound modes. Great, although the tape did look ugly inside the doll’s house. In hindsight I could’ve protected the strip with a mock skirting-board, but at this stage I’m just looking for a relatively quick fix… well I was lol. Again I had ‘the packing up’ issue! In fact this time the tape came off in places and stuck onto other things. Aaaaagh!
So now (note I didn’t say ‘finally’) I’ve chosen a set of rechargeable tealights. I’ve gone for my favourite warm white. The handset offers a dimmer control and two flicker settings. I’m yet to test them at a craft event, but as there are no fine exposed wires and I can simply store these in the small box they came in, inside my doll’s house, I’m hoping this will protect them during transit to and from events. Fingers crossed!
The view through the windows is cute and something I will build on, over the years, as I work on the inside of the doll’s house.
I’ll report back and let-you-know how the tealights work. I have actually also bought a set of fairy lights to keep as a back-up and to use on the table at the Christmas markets. I found a plastic reel to wind them onto, which will hopefully help to protect them. However, as they are not my main lighting system I’m not so anxious about this set.
Lights have turned out to be an unexpected nuisance!
Mooniiplaits Crochet 