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SET PIECES
Set pieces are words or pictures written in fire. They are beautiful and elaborate, and were commonly used centuries ago during Renaissance times, but are rarely used anymore in professional displays. Modern firework shows are usually designed to be viewed by audiences from great distances that set pieces couldn't be seen from. The only times they are used are in smaller close-proximity displays, such as those fired at racetracks and sometimes sports games.
Set pieces consist of small, pen-sized colored flares called lances attached to a wooden frame in some sort of pattern, such as a picture. A pieces of quick match is attached to the ends of the lances, so they all ignite at virtually the same instant. Although lances are considered Display Fireworks and require a BATF permit to purchase and use, you can use simple sparklers to get a similar effect.
Materials
-Morning Glory
type sparklers
-¼ to ½" thick plywood
-drill and 1/16" bit
- quickmatch
-visco fuse or electric match
-chalk or pencil
-tape measure
-wood screws and wood (such as 2x4s)
THE SET PIECE
Begin by choosing a design (words or pictures) and figure out how large it should be according to its distance from the audience. Letters should be a minimum of 12" high and 12" wide. If the set piece is going to be more than 75' from the audience, make them larger.
| Next, find a piece of plywood that your design will fit on to. Cut it 2" larger than your actual design all on all sides. Use a tape measure and chalk to divide up the sections for your letters. The boxes should be as wide as they are high. Then draw the letters, picture, or whatever. Use a different color chalk to draw an "X" or put a dot at every point on the letter where you'll put a sparkler. They should be about 2" apart on straight sections of letters, and 1" apart at curved sections. You can increase this distance for larger set pieces so you don't use up quite as many sparklers. |  |
Using a 1/8" drill bit, drill a hole wherever there's an "X". Make sure they're about an equal distance apart. Spray paint the wood flat black so it will be harder to see when the set piece is going off. The idea is to make it look like the letters are kind of floating in the air, not attached to a support. Wait a while for it to dry.
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Now prepare the sparklers. Cut the stick off about 1/4" below the composition, and remove the colorful tissue paper from the opposite end to expose the primed end (it looks like a white paper tube with dab of hard black stuff on the end). Take a hot glue gun and cover the hole in glue, then quickly stick in the end of the sparkler (NOT the primed end). Do this until every hole has a sparkler in it. |
| Now you're ready to match the set piece. You can use quick match, or something called sticky match. I've never used sticky match, so I'll just tell you how to do it with quick match. Leave about a 6" leader of quick match before the first sparkler. Where the quick match comes into contact with a sparkler, cut a small slit in the quick match paper tubing to reveal the black match inside, and carefully insert the primed end of the sparkler into the slit. Use a small piece of masking tape to hold the quick match to the sparkler. Repeat this process from every sparkler on the set piece. Insert a piece of visco fuse or an electric match into the quick match leader. Your set piece is now ready to fire, once you find something to mount it from. |  |
THE MOUNTING FRAME
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There are
several ways to mount the set piece. The first it to hang it from some
type of wire hung between two poles. I wouldn't use that method because
for one, you'd need one hell of a strong wire, and second, it would sag down and
could be blown by the wind. A better option would be to mount it directly
to a pole or tree. Mounting it on your house is a VERY BAD IDEA...A third
option is to build a mounting frame out of 2x4s and attach the set piece to the
top of that (as shown to the left). You would have the ability to move the thing
wherever you wanted.
You might want to add other things to the set piece, such as fountains and wheels. For example, if your set piece was a picture of a car, you could use [firework] wheels for the car wheels. You can fuse these directly to the set piece quick match to ignite as soon as the set piece does, or use various lengths of visco fuse so there's a bit of a delay. Once you've lit off the set piece, you can use it over and over again. Just use pliers to rip the sticks and glue out of the holes, then put in new sparklers.
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