I started this project before the home order -- I can’t actually remember when, but it has to have been after December because the jam jars were from a jam advent calendar. However, I’m pretty sure the lights were assembled, just not hung up, by February. Which argues strongly for the idea that I was using a power drill in January while concussed, which is not something I would advise anyone to do, but unfortunately a side effect of TBI is that you tend not to make good decisions.
Anyway, I took a bunch of the tiny sample jam jars, removed the labels and washed them thoroughly, and then drilled a small hole in the thin metal lid of each one. I threaded an LED bulb from a cheap string of battery-power Ikea lights through each hole and sealed the hole with a healthy dollop of E6000 glue, which I let cure, then added a second dollop on top just to make sure they were really glued in, and that was that.
I’ve been trying to find a good place to hang them because they are a bit heavy and of course a little breakable, so they had to go somewhere the cats couldn’t get them. I finally settled on the frame of the mud nook. I think it adds a nice effect to the entryway of the unit.
[Description: three images of a string of fairy lights made from LEDs and tiny jam jars; in the first, they are not lit, hung over what looks like (and used to be) a closet doorway, which is now where I keep a bench to sit on and all my cold-weather gear. In the second, there is a close up on a single jam jar; in the third, they are lit in the darkened hallway and casting fun shadows on the wall.]
