Getting ready to do new Christmas pannel for front window. Going to be about 38" square. Wife wants it to be lite so can be seen from the street side. Thinking might use something like rope lighting aroune edge of frame on inside so lights accross the pannel. Any other suggestions?
Lighting can be simple or more complex depending on how good you want it to look. This is especially true when the panel contains clear glasses versus opals. Pinpoint lights will create pinpoint spots in the panel. Diffuse light will make the panel look more like it does in daylight. For panels displayed on walls and not in windows, I make a light box and use a light white opal between the panel and light tubes. I use materials from the sign makers as they have a thin plastic white for backlit signs. A bit much for a backlit window panel but you get the idea.
Panels look best at night if there is no bright light around the panel so for a temporary method I have used things like poster board or black cloth to mask the area around the panel. Then use drafting paper to make a back layer on the panel. It's light weight and can be held on with tape. Drafting or tracing paper is a compromise between lighting with smaller weaker sources versus many tubes in a custom lightbox. The difuse layer (paper) becomes the lighting source instead of the hot spots from bulbs so you get this even glow. Now you can use the cheap clamp lamps that have an aluminum reflector and put 100 watt equilivant CF's in them. I have even clamped them to a chair behind a panel so they are not right on top of the panel.
The panel now is lit evenly with no light coming thru the window around it. It looks like it is suspended in the window and you can't see the individual lamps which creates hot spots. If the drafting paper is too thin just add another layer. If you have a very light weight roll up window shade that transmits light, pull the shade down behind the panel and throw lots of light on the shade. The shade glows white and lights the panel.
If you do chose to use the paper diffuser method to eliminate hot spots, make sure you chose your glass with the white diffuser behind it. The diffusers can take a beautiful antique glass and turn it in to an interesting (hopefully) opal. Know ahead of time the outcome from the lighting method.
if this is an exterior window, you can't use a diffuser, unless you want to be putting them up/down every 12 hours.
edge rope lighting doesn't work well in this case either.
you're limited to having spotlights on the outside trained in if you want to see the panel at night.
what i did is make exterior panels have irid on the transparents. this almost disappears during the day, but shows up at night from inside due to reflected light. with the outside dark, all the colored glass becomes black and the irid shines metalic colors.
if this is an exterior window, you can't use a diffuser, unless you want to be putting them up/down every 12 hours.
you're limited to having spotlights on the outside trained in if you want to see the panel at night.
Paul is doing an interior panel for temporary display at Christmas to be lit from the inside so folks can see it from the outside if I read his posting correctly. Otherwise a Christmas panel in the window all year is too much like Maine where we leave the lights up and just unplug them.
So a diffuser is appropriate for any kind of glass and lit by interior lights. Cheap aluminum clamp type lights with CFL's work fine.
Under some conditions the LED rope lights can illuminate stained glass panels. I have tried many times to adopt them and eliminate some of the depth I need for the other bulbs to no avail. They are costly and they are poor light emitters that is they are cheap to operate and last for very long periods of time and have no heat buid up but the output is very low per unit. You really have to try them before jumping into the new lightbox design.
When I was testing them, I would take the string of bulbs (even white LED Christmas lights) and place them in a box then put a panel over the opening.
You can purchase them as LED rope lights by the foot or pre-made and, also, as the Christmas light sets.
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