There’s a lot of love for zip ties (cable ties) in this house. They come in all sorts of colors, in huge bundles at low cost. It is such a clever little thing that has hundreds of uses. Originally designed for airplane wire harnesses by an electronics company, we’ve come up with another important use for them that will make the inventor proud… with 4th of July coming up, we’ve created a zip-tie fireworks display!
They are very easy to make with great effect. I’m very happy about how they came out. However they were very difficult to photograph so the images don’t show fully how brilliant they look in the flesh. All hung up in multiple layers, they really look like colorful exploding fireworks. You can make an impressive indoor fireworks display for your party or make a smaller mobile for your room. They are waterproof so you can install them for your outdoor parties too.
All you need is bunch of colorful zip-ties of various lengths including white ones. You can buy them cheaply from hardware, car parts stores or ebay. We mainly used 4inch/100mm short and 8inch/200mm longer ones, but you can also buy them even longer. A few of the colors are called ‘florescent’ which we found from some geeky car pimping guys on Ebay.
How to make Zip Tie Firework displays
1. Loop the white zip tie into a circle and fasten with another zip tie in a color you want. Notice the white ones just overlap – they don’t zip together. Use different numbers of white zip ties to make many different sizes of circle. The photos show two circle sizes using 1 or 2 zip ties, but you can carry on connecting more to make bigger circles. Making different sizes will help in making the whole thing really look like fireworks exploding at different moments. Small circles with short ties make the ones that have just exploded, large ones will look like the ones that have exploded a little earlier and have expanded bigger.
2. Add colorful zip ties around the circles, mix colors and vary the densities. That’s it! Teach kids how to fasten the zip ties and enjoy creating them together. Remember and explain that once you put the end through, you can only fasten it tighter, but not the reverse. Importantly; Make sure kids never wrap them around any of their body parts – fingers, ankles… nowhere! Never leave the little ones unattended with zip ties.
Once children learn not to use them around their body, they are great for motor skills and crafts projects.
Hang them up as you like and enjoy your indoor fireworks. I think they are really pretty and fun. It will impress the guests.
See how they explode! Bang! Boom!
What a clever idea. Zip ties are so fun anyway. Making them into fireworks just makes them a little more fun!
Zip ties are great! : )