r/flowarts • u/joel_antsonamelon • 5h ago
My first fiber optic build was a jellyfish umbrella named Simrat. 15 years later, here are 12 light-up Halloween costumes our artists have made, with how they built each one
Hey everyone! I'm Joel, the guy behind Ants on a Melon (yes, that's really the name). Halloween is creeping up, so I figured I'd share what our artists have built with fiber optics and exactly how they did it.
Quick backstory: back in 2011 I had an umbrella hanging from my living room ceiling with beads draped over it. I took it down, wove fiber optics into the bottom and hooked it up to an RGB light. That was Simrat the jellyfish, and she made her debut at Re:Gen at Horning's Hideout here in Oregon. People went nuts for her! If I had somewhere to be, there was no way I was getting there unless I turned her off. So yes, there had to be a jellyfish on this list, and the last photo is Simrat herself :)
The lineup, in the same order as the photos:
Light-up dress (Natalie Walsh). Fibers sewn in lines down a white corset and left loose under the hem. Leave those ends loose, that's where all the sparkle is.
Jellyfish (Maia Friedlander, IG:@livewire.to). Strands hang from the rim of a clear umbrella. Set a slow color fade and the whole thing pulses like it's breathing. Stick to 6 ft strands, longer ones drag on wet sidewalks.
Fairy wings (Natalie). A harness sits between the shoulder blades with the light clipped right there, and the fibers fan out over each arm. Raise your arms and the wings open. Mind the wingspan at doorways!
Skeleton (Maia). Fibers laid along each rib on a black outfit, ends gathered at the spine. Add a horned skull mask and you've got a demon.
Mermaid (Maia). Fiber loops stitched in a scale pattern down a fitted skirt, flaring into a fin at the ankles. Tuck the light at the waist and run a slow fade through blues and greens, or coral red for a siren.
Glowing fur coat (Maia). Bundles run down the lining and out of each cuff, so every twirl throws color from your hands. Fluffy white fur soaks up the light and glows right along with the fibers.
Witch with a light staff (Maia). A fiber bundle woven down a wooden staff sweeps light across the ground with every step. Swap the hat for a hooded robe and you're a wizard.
Dark angel (Maia). Glowing wings plus a lit saber blade. Set both to the same color so they read as one character.
Phantom (Maia). A long black gown with fibers falling from the neckline like a cage. Use 12 ft strands for floor length and keep the fade slow, because a fast fade looks like a party, not a ghost.
Electric flapper (Maia). Fibers hung from a halter instead of beaded fringe. Mount the light at the back of the neck and pick End Glow, then the glowing tips become your fringe.
Light line bodysuit (Maia). Fibers sewn in curves on a plain black bodysuit. In the dark the suit disappears and only the outline is left.
Cyberpunk raver (ravemage on IG). A black dress wrapped in fiber lines with glowing tips at the hem. She saves a playlist in the app, so one button press changes the whole look.
Every one of these goes together the same way: anchor the light somewhere you can actually reach, run the bundle along a seam or some structure, and secure the strands without kinking them (a kink is where the light stops).
End Glow vs Sparkle comes up a lot, so here's the short version. End Glow puts bright points of color at the tips. Sparkle twinkles along the whole strand, because it gets its shimmer from tiny nicks cut into the fiber that let light leak out all the way down. Costumes are gentle use, so either one holds up fine here.
A few things people learn the hard way:
The light runs about 7 hours on one 18650 battery at typical brightness, which covers trick-or-treating plus the party after. Cold drains lithium cells faster though, so keep the spare in an inside pocket, not a bag.
For kids, the fibers are just light pipes with no power in them. Everything lives in one small sealed light with no hot parts and no trailing wires. Put some glow on the back of the costume too, since drivers come up from behind, and give kids the buttons instead of the app so they can turn their own costume back on.
I'm not a costume designer (I'm pretty decent with a Dremel though), so huge thanks to Maia (@livewire.to on IG) and Natalie for making these look so incredible. If you're building something glowy this year, please post it! I'd love to see it, and I'm happy to answer anything about fiber lengths or how to mount the light.
Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!!
