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Although it's not clear at this resolution, the glowing red orbs on the roof are skulls. And they rock! |
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Here's what they look like. Up close they aren't that interesting. Not completely fake looking (I've seen much, much worse), but a bit cheesy. In other words, they're perfect from a distance, sort of like a Monet. |
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Something fun I'll bet you didn't know: You can pry off C7 or C9 xmas lights with a small screwdriver. (Note: You can't do this with the mini lights including with LEDs.) |
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The bulb's socket simply stabs
into the
conductors in the wiring. You can pull off the lights you don't
want
in a series or move them to different locations in a strand (or to a
whole
new strand).
Note: I also used this trick to make up the pumpkin light strand on the back porch. Part of the magic of Halloween is that xmas decorations are already in the stores before the Trick or Treaters have come! |
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I started out with a 25-bulb
strand and
pulled off all but five lights. Those were placed under the
skulls
as you'll see in subsequent pictures.
Everything is held in place by twisting galvanized wire onto the electric cord and inserting the wire under the roof tiles (you can see this up close in some of the other pics on this page). I had all of this up here for a little over two weeks this year, and even relatively strong winds didn't displace any of the skulls or lights. |
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A side view from the roof. |
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And at night. |
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The wire runs thought the mandibular notch (actual anatomical term) of each skull. I was going to bore out the formen magnum (hole where your spinal cord enters your cranium on the way to your brain) so that the bulb could fit inside... |
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...but the skulls are so nearly transparent as it is, the light pours through them just sitting on top of the bulb. And don't worry; these are 5-Watt bulbs. They don't get hot enough to do any damage to the skulls (or your roof, obviously; they're xmas lights, after all). |
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You can see how this all looks on Halloween night. It's much more interesting having something above the plane of eye-level. (Besides the nearly-full moon just peeking down through the top of the frame.) |
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