Oops forgot- if you have a Dollar Stretcher dollar store, they have bags of acryllic beads for a buck- pretty ones, too!

I would use thin wall electrical pipe (aka metal conduit pipe). I saw some sparklers at an art gallery in Madison, Wisconsin that was made from that type of pipe. The end can be easily pinched closed with pliers once you put the beaded wires in it. I will have to try some of these because I have a lot of beads lying around.

I used thin threaded pipe like goes through a lamp but smaller. I sprayed it copper and then took a 2' piece of flexible copper and put it over the pipe. Put the stems in the copper and mashed down on it with a hammer. It holds real well.

Good luck, Sue

How narrow does the electrical conduit come? I've been trying to figure out what to use. I was thinking about using narrow bamboo. If you dunk it in tar the end in the ground won't decay. I'd like to find something that is not too rigid. I'm goiing to make a few to sell along with my hypertufa pots this summer and see how they go.

i haven't done my sparklers yet but i saved some of those tines from a metal rake that fell apart. not sure what to use for a base. it'd have to be heavy. i got 2 ornament holders from dollar tree a couple years back. thats what got me to thinking although the bases on those are too light to anchor anything

Remember to post pics everyone! How do acrylic beads hold up in the garden?
Kathy

I made several garden sparklers for Christmas gifts this year. I used 16 gauge galvanized wire (14 pieces with beads, 3 pieces of 18 ga galvanized wire to curl up and 1 piece of 18 gauge copper wire to wrap the entire wire bundle to make it look more finished.) All of the pieces of wire were inserted into a 3" length of 1/4" hard copper pipe and soldered in place. I used a 1/4" copper coupler to mount the sparkler to a 36" pcs of aluminum rod. I used glass beads. I put a blob of solder every 3" or so to keep the beads separate. I am new to this website and I don't know how to add a photo.

I'd love to see yours colchicum. If you have your photos in a place like photobucket or flickr, you copy the html code right into the body of the message. You will know if it worked when you preview the message the pic should appear.
Kathy

Sorry, I missed your message club53! The electrical conduit pipe comes in a 1/2 inch size (or at least that's what it looks like! lol).

I posted a couple of photos of my garden sparklers in Photobucket.

Here is a link that might be useful: colchicum1's album

Love it!!! Can we get a step by step? I bought some beads at Michael's last year & need to learn how to do this!! :)

I made my first two sparklers this week. I used mostly acrylic beads as they aren't as heavy as glass but mostly used beads I had on hand so a few glass ones were mixed in. I used 17 gauge galvanized electric fence wire which is springy enough to work well and most beads I had will fit on this size wire. I used jewelry crimp beads to space the beads. They just fit the 17 gauge wire perfectly. I made 11 wires in 3 different lengths plus a center wire bent in unique shape. I wrapped the base of the group of wires tightly with separate wire and inserted the sparkler into a piece of 1/2 inch conduit we had cut into four 30 inch pieces. it came in 10 ft. length and fits easily over a 2 foot piece of rebar stuck in the ground. See pictures here: https://picasaweb.google.com/jalinvil/GardenSparklers?authkey=Gv1sRgCIW1iMuE8eTInQE#

I have used red acrylic beads in the past when making suncatchers and they have held their color well for several years so I am hoping the blue and other colors will do as well. I bought some acrylic necklaces at the dollar store for some of the larger orange beads.

Texann you done a great job and explained it pretty easy...

Went to Home Depot and thought all the pipes, etc. were too heavy and rigid looking and too expensive. So went wandering around looking for ideas and found the ballisters for railings and decks. They cost $1.00 and I cut one in half, bored a hole in the top to tuck the wires in and then painted it to look like old peeling paint. They work!!!

club53 post some pics if you can, so we can see how you did it. We love to look at pics. It sounds really nice.

That is so cool!!!

So much fun!
I've got some clear beads that I thought I would use as watere from a tea pot or watering can, but maybe I'll make a sparkler instead.
Kathy

Texann, where did you find the crimp beads that you used? I can't find any to fit the 16 gauge wire that I have been using for my sparklers