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I've come across images from a chandelier by Mathieu Lehanneur for Chateau Borely. Even after looking at it quite for a while and going through everything I've ever seen, I couldn't really imagine what light source/bulb (I don't know the English word) this is. After reading the article on Dezeen, I saw that it's

Glass tubes containing strips of LEDs

and at the end of the article

LEDs, tubes of borosilicate glass, luminous control system.

It's hard to imagine how a glowing tube could be made out of LEDs as those are single/point light sources. How would this be build/made?

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Images and copyright notices can be found on Dezeens original article.

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    I want one of those. I bet it costs like 5000 dollars or something :) But costs 100 dollars to make :)
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 13:16
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    @ppumkin I doubt that it will cost $100 to make. The borosilicate glass is used in laboratories as it's chemical and temperature resistant. Getting your hands on that, forming tubes out of it and purchasing it in such a lenght... you know the rest ;)
    – kaiser
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:28
  • Well I suppose if you used glass then yes :) But I know you can bend PCV tubes like this with a machine into any angle you need without warping the plastic... but you also need to find somebody with that machine and tubes. Without a doubt. This is a really amazing piece of modern art :) I love it!
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:32
  • Unfortunately this question is open to speculation and cannot be answered. The only person who can answer it is the designer and maintainer. Although, I hope that you got some insight into this if you were going to try and replicate it.
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:41
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    @ppumkin Just noticed that it's etched at the vertical parts as well. Man, must this chandelier be expensive... :)
    – kaiser
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:53

3 Answers 3

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There is also something called El-Wire. It is a flexible cable that is fluorescent. It can be powered of batteries and is popular on clothes, like dancers - But the applications are endless for this glow wire.

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I bought 10 metres of this and it is really funky stuff. I bought really thin el wire for christmas decorations but you get various thickness.

Explanation

El wire is quite different from standard lighting. What makes it work is high frequency alternating currents and not really the input voltage. I have read that powering it up directly from 110vac or 220vac will light them up but it will be dimm because its on 50/60hz.

The general standard indicates that the transformer box you get with it steps up (or down) to somewhere between 90~120vac at 1000 Hertz - You can get transformers that can even power a few hundred feet by a AA battery up to several days. This high frequency is what excites the phosphor coating and causes it emits light.

Regulating the frequency makes it brighter or dimmer. The input voltage also makes it brighter or dimmer but too much or too little voltage will deplete the phosphorus layer quicker. Unlike LED's el wire will eventually burn out and become really dimm.

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  • +1, wild! What are the voltage/frequencies for a typical el-wire?
    – HerrBag
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 13:56
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    ahh, the downside: "It burns out. At 60hz (household) it'll lose 1/2 it's luminosity in about 7 years of continuous use. At higher frequencies, this is much faster. At 2000hz it's still in the range of hundreds of hours and the stuff is quite bright." elwire.com/faq/faq.html
    – HerrBag
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:10
  • I added an explanation. I have not found a DIY IC to make my self to drive these things. The specs are very sketchy and my explanation is a guideline only. It is a very simple and efficient light source.
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:19
  • Using the typical driver should give you a 2 years of light if you had it turned on for 24/7. Any tweaking will affect the life.
    – Piotr Kula
    Commented Jun 27, 2013 at 14:21
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It looks like the LED strip has been covered by a translucent, white tube. The white tubing must act like a diffuser (think lampshade).

From there, dimming is a standard feature.

Light levels are getting pretty good, a recent kitchen project used a strip with 328 lumens per foot.

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He could be using a special type of fibreglass material which its source of light powered by super bright CREED LED (5 watt or 10 Watt)

This will give the illumination effect that you see. The actual LED (or LED's is in the ceiling)

Here is something on ebay (50m 2mm side light flexible solid core fiber optic cable for lighting decoration) but it is driven by a bright bulb not led. It comes in various colours and has the desired effect.

But searching for fibreglass lighting will help you in your DIY journeys :)

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