If someone would have asked me early on in the semester if working on a jacket that lights up would be so deceivingly complex and intricate I would have laughed.
The truth of the matter, however, is that there is so much attention to detail REQUIRED for every component to work as it’s designed to. In my case, getting the jacket to be comfortable to wear while figuring out how I was going to wire it all up and leave enough slack where needed was a daunting task. I spent countless hours testing and retesting different wiring positions and lengths. Sometimes it was too taught, other times there was too much slack. The latter being problematic because it could potentially get caught on something, etc.
After it was all said and done (and after practically mutilating the jacket), I learned that experience really goes a long way. I’ve dealt with theatrical costumes before. I’ve dealt with LED’s and wiring before, but never together like this. Bridging the gap so that I can have a clean looking jacket was definitely my goal. This week, a lot of the wiring had to be redone (by Michael). The jacket wasn’t working properly (lights not turning on or behaving erratically) and the culprit was presumed to be the single core wiring used throughout the jacket instead of stranded wire, which is more flexible for this kind of application. It had never occurred to me pay attention to and select an appropriate wire type.
It all came together in the end though and I am very proud of all the effort put in by myself and the rest of the team! Hoorah!
