Since I am graduating and going to college next year, I have been doing a lot of searching for ways to organize and decorate my room. I happened to come across a picture of these cool looking lights for a dorm room that you could buy for between 20 and 30 dollars depending on how many you bought. These lights looked so awesome and I personally thought that it would make more sense just to make them myself- they appeared to be easy and the materials seemed to be pretty straight forward.

Said materials based on this picture looked to be like wire and string. But I was not quite sure how they got the lights to be in such a spherical shape. Then I remembered a previous project that I had done about stress balls and I realized that I had some leftover balloons from that same project. These would be perfect to make the shape I needed for these new lights. So, my final list of materials was… wire, string, and my leftover balloons.

The first thing that I did was blow up several of the balloons. Not too big though, I only had so much wire to work with. The balloon should be as big as an apple and no larger. To start with, I just used the one balloon to make sure that my idea worked.

The second step that I did was the wiring. I could cut pieces that were between two and three feet long and then wrap them around one at a time, and then add to them as per needed. This added to the artisticness of the project. I would like to note that the entire balloon does not need to be covered. Make sure that you are leaving small or medium sized gaps between the different wires when you wrap them around. This gives it a “wicker” type look and gives you access to the balloon, leading to step three.

For step three, you will need to find a sharp object. A pencil or a knife will do the trick. Slide the sharp end of the object in between one of the gaps to pop the balloon. The remaining material from the balloon will slip out between the gaps. Take a minute to admire the artwork you have just almost finished. Once you are finished with the admiring, the final thing that you need to do is take a thin piece of the string and tie it around part of the wiring. Complete this same process to make as many of these wire balls as you would like. This is how you make the wire a decoration.

If you want to make your wirings into lights, you will need to purchase a strand of lights. A normal strand that you might find at a store around Christmas will get the task done. Pick one of the small gaps in the wiring and slide it around the lights on the strands. If the hole is too big, you can bend the wire to make the gap smaller and keep it from sliding off when you hang it up. This is how you make the wire into the lights, but whichever way you decided to make the wire balls you now have a chic and innovative way to decorate your dorm room!