Fun with EL wire

I bought a piece of EL (Electro Luminescent) wire earlier this year, one of those odd spur of the moment purchases. Who knows, this might come in useful for something one day?

Anyway, it's a plasticized wire about a metre long and 2mm in diameter that glows when AC current is passed through it... (A small converter box steps up the power from a battery to the required higher voltage AC current to drive the EL wire.)

The effect is something like neon, yet the material is flexible too. When photographed, it can also look a lot like those light trail long exposures people make with torches...

Here are a few photos I've just taken working late in the lab tonight. These were all taken with the Canon 600D camera and Canon 50mm f1.4 lens. The fourth, close-up one was taken with this lens too, but also with a cheap macro tube mounted between the lens and the camera.