So I rewired them.
I decided to replace the lengths of incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs. White wire was prohibitively expensive, so I settled on green wire. I have no idea why green would be cheaper, or more available, than white. I also don't know where the manufacturers of wire decorations get their lights. I couldn't find any wiring with those nifty clips already attached. So I settled for zip ties.
Lots and lots of zip ties.
Here are the step by step photos of the restringing. This is how it looks coming out of the box. Which may explain the fraying wires. (Well, that and the bunnies chewed through some of the wiring.)
This is how it looks assembled. Except this one has a broken antler bracket. That's why it looks like he has a mane. His antlers are laying against his neck.
I stripped off the white wire (this is a different deer). At first I was tediously following the wiring to unfasten it. Then I had an epiphany and realized there was no reason to preserve the wire. So I snipped it. Much, much easier to remove.
Because the wire I bought wasn't designed for wire sculptures, I had to string sections at a time, trying not to double the wire or ruin the outline of the sculpture.
In some areas of the structure, it was hard to decide the best direction to run the new wiring. Liberal use of clothes pins allowed me to test layouts before zip tying.
After zip tying the bulbs, the reindeer looks more like a porcupine.
Here is the tableau during the day. (And yes, the small deer in the foreground was done with different wire. If I get ambitious, I will change him over.)
And here is the tableau at night. Here the green wire is a non-issue. And honestly, very few outdoor sculptures look good during the daytime.
I have one final stag to rewire. I planned on getting them done early last year, but I procrastinated. I did the 4 in the picture in the two weeks after Thanksgiving of last year. The fifth spent the season in the garage.
I've promised myself I will finish the last deer next week. I'm not sure I believe me.
Updated: I did finish the last deer, but not until December, 2012.
Related: Red nose for a white wire deer
Great Job! I'm in the same boat and need your advise. Sue, can you tell me what type of lights you used? The length and how many lights per string? I appreciate your time. thanks
ReplyDeleteI bought inexpensive, generic LED strands from my local Lowes hardware. I bought mostly strands of 100 lights, with a couple extra 50 light strands for filler. The 100-light strands were 25 feet long.
DeleteThe large male deer took 500 lights. The large female deer took 450. The small does each took 300 lights. It all depends on how closely you place the bulbs.
I bought the zip ties at the hardware store in the wiring department. I used one tie per bulb, with a few extra to take care of dangling wires.
Hey Sue, I've done this several times but I must say I never thought of the clothes pins to hold temporarily. Do you remember the directions you took on the deer when wiring to avoid overlap. I've done it before, but yours look much neater than mine.
DeleteHmm, my best remembrance is that I went down one side from neck, down then up the front leg, along the stomach, down then up the rear leg, along the back and return to the tail, then along the other leg, side, leg, and up the neck.
DeleteHey there Im in a similar position, I snapped the lead under the wheeled bin when I pulled it out it normally just rolls over them. I bought an extension lead which the supplier said would work as you connect the two pin points and yes it did work only the lights are only at 20%, hardly show and dont match the other two. I will have to re light, so thanks to the commentator who said you need 500. I wasnt relishing threading it through and out again sos I will use the method of clipping to the outside. Great idea of testing with pegs. I realise I have to go around the extremities. and you have confirmed that but can you wrap around the stomach continuously or that will just look like stripes? Maybe you do the same with the body and go up and down Im just concerned that either way you will get a stripe affect? Thank you Sue
DeleteHonestly not sure if wrapping around the stomach will look striped. Or more striped than usual. Because there is a slight striped effect anyway due to the wire structure of the deer. They look better from a distance.
DeleteMenards has LED white wire lights that work great and look like the old ones. No. 284-6014. Now to find the clips. A lot of mine just broke because so brittle.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info!
DeleteI found some clips at buyhardwaresupplies.com. On order so will see when they get here. I have redone 13 of these now and they look terrific.
DeleteWhat were the clips listed as? When I searched just for "clips", it came up empty.
DeleteI think I put bulb clips and deer or something like that to get the wire animals to come up. Think they also had wire sculptures listed too.
DeleteFound another place for the white clips - http://www.holidayleds.com/holiday_catalog/christmas_light_clips
ReplyDeleteI am in the process now.. what a job it is! I did the first one with white electrical tape, but now I am ordering clips. It originally had clips but they were disintegrating. One more deer and 1/2 sled to go!
ReplyDeleteIt is a lot of work, but worth it when you see the result. Good luck!
DeleteI did my two gold flecked metal deer this Christmas thanks to the encouragement of this post. I didn't get around to special clips, but used garden velcro, still a chore but perhaps easier to redo down the road? I bought special glue and gold glitter to patch the swirling soft metal surfaces where glitter has flaked away but decided to do this next year. If you have glitter deer, here is a tip. Don't do this in the dinning room :) Work outside even if it is raining. The glitter gets all over EVERYTHING.
DeleteVelcro is a wonderful idea. I'll have to snip my zip ties if I ever need to redo a strand.
DeleteThanks for the tip on the glitter!
How does the use of clear fishing line sound to secure both light strings and new grapevine?
DeleteIt would be more subtle, but slower I think. Tying line takes longer than zipping a tie.
DeleteSorry if this article was soo long ago but may i know where did you get your wires? Cheers!
ReplyDeleteBy wires do you mean the light strands? If so, at the local big box hardware store. You can also get them on-line at Holiday LED Lights, but they are more expensive.
DeleteI mean the white color wire that you use to make the reindeer. Are those wires? Thanks!
DeleteOh, I didn't make the deer. I bought them years before and replaced the lights when they went bad.
DeleteThe deer appear to be made out of a type of rebar. Maybe 1/4"?
Christmaslightsource.com has lights with clips or just clips. The lights with clips fit 3/16 inch wire frame. Instructions for measuring are on christmaslightsource.com
ReplyDeleteGood to know. Thanks for posting!
DeleteCan you describe the way you finally came up with the best way to re-wire ex. start at the back leg and go down then up, from there go up around the back end of the deer.....does this make since? Im trying to figure it out and have came to a stopping point. I don't want to do a lot of back tracking.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I don't think you can prevent all back tracking. I started with the a back leg and moved up to the torso. Then the next back leg and the torso. Mostly so I could make sure the plugs were at the back. Moved my way forward and down the front legs. Did the face and antlers with a separate strand so any excess could be in the body, not the head. Different lengths of lights might help, but I did mine with all 50-count strands.
DeleteI'm on a mission to fix my reindeers. I found these on amazon.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004161AIA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2L77EE7U53NWQ&psc=1
Good to know. Thanks for including the link!
DeleteOther than eating your beautiful nursery, the deer will regularly amaze you as you drive to work toward the beginning of the day or home around evening time. Deer Project
ReplyDeleteI am looking to replace incand. bulbs with LED's on 3 large metal frame deer. Looks like Bright Star now selling theirs with bulbs at 6" centers vs my original ones which were 4" I am wondering if I should do 6" or 4" spacing. these go on decorated golf cart for xmas parades; converting to LED eliminates need for generator. Thanks in advance for any feedback
ReplyDeleteIt's really personal preference. I don't like the look of the wider spacing, but that means I have to do two staggered rows of lights.
Deletewhat came off was about 55' of lights, 180 bulbs. i read above some have got away with 3 strings, 50 each. looks like either too few or too many.....
DeleteI just restrung my white lites with white cord on the metal deer frame. 🦌 looks like it should work. However, I can see NO definition in the outline of the deer. It just looks like a standing glob of white lites. What did I do wrong. I went up n down each leg and on the torso area. Should look like a deer but it does not
ReplyDeleteI don't know for sure. But after 10 years some of my light strands had stopped working. (I thought LED was forever?) I couldn't find the "button" light strands I had used before. So I picked up some standard shaped white lights. I noticed that while the button light bulbs followed the wires, the standard bulbs stood out from the wires like spines. In order to get the light bulbs to follow the wires I had to tie the bulb sockets to the deer wires. Tedious, yes. But I can't find replacements for these deer. And for now I am willing to keep rewiring them.
DeleteI just redid my wired reindeer this year. My antlers fell off so I did not replace them. I used copper wire fairy outdoor lights and white electrical tape. It took 66' lighted length. So I am glad about the antlers. I then covered all the thin wires with the white electrical tape. Hopefully the lights last because undoing all that tape will be a nightmare. It took less than 3 rolls. But I love the way it looks.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds lovely.
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