I've read that a company has made solar cells with an inkjet printer, but that product (special ink?) won't be available until next year at least.

Ocean state job lots has some nice little solar lights that I put in my garden, $3.77 each. If you took the stick off the top is rather small, just a little bigger than a regular roll of scotch tape (without the dispenser). The chrome ones would look nice inside glass. Gee, I might have to go buy some more! I think I would experiment with how being inside heavy glass and possibly more glass above the sensors works before I glued it inside. Might want to tip the light so the sensor faces outward a little bit or may have to consider where you are putting it and how the sun hits it, not sure. They still run off some sort of battery, that the sun recharges. Maybe ones at yard sales that may or may not work could be gotten cheap and the battery replaced. However this also means that the battery for the light sealed inside your totem will need replacing eventually. One of mine went bad in a week or 2. I have had others for years.
Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

kathy

I like the look of the mason jar lights. Easier to do, since these were for a one time event, would have been to place light sticks inside the jars. Not sure if this would have been more or less cost effective however.

I don't know about solar lights, but I'm pretty well sure they must also be sealed within a unit. The batteries would certainly be destroyed by moisture.

Thanks for posting the link. Very interesting and visually pleasing.

I would not use CR2032 cells. They are not cheap, and they don't last long.
typical LED operates from 3.4 to no more than 3.8 volts DC.
CR2032 is 3 volts, so it will be dimmer.

The way to do it would be to buy LED packages with LEDs and resistors that would allow you to operate the LED with 12 Volts DC. They are not expensive at all.
Go on eBay, check out "high power white LED"
Actually you can buy white, yellow, green, blue, red, LEDs.

Or, you can buy plug-in LED Christmas lights. They come in one hundred LEDs on a string. Not too expensive.

dcarch

I bought some solar powered spot lights(3/$24)and have one shining on my glass on glass window and one shining up into a garden orb I made, and one shining up a pc I call the flower tower. They have two lightbulbs in them so they are a little bit brighter and I just love them and want to get more now.

Did you ever make a totem with lights? If so please post a pic. If you did already I missed it. Thanks

I don't think we can build our own solar powered lights easily at this time. And the rechargable battery (that is charged daily by the sun) does wear out eventually. Some of my solar lights from big lots that I got last spring have stopped working after a year. So a light sealed inside a totem may stop working after a year or less and you couldn't change it.
Not sure what the solution is to the elusive lighted totem, but I suspect one of us will figure it out eventually, then it will appear in Country Living or some such magazine, lol.
kathy

Hubby and I are thinking of having the power co install an electrical box with plug-ins out in our pasture at some point in the future to string electrical garden lighting around our property. But this will have to wait a year or two until we have the funds to do it. I've strung extention cords as far as I can manually, in ditches I dug underground, to the picnic area in back and post lanterns in the front yard. I dream of lights along our 1/4 mile walking path and all over our pasture. Lights are my passion!

I have a few solar lights but they seem to be temporary and very dim.

I was recently thinking about this subject of including lights in totems and if I could successfully drill holes in glass I'd place a string of twinkle lights from the bottom to the top of the totem. Would have to use exterior lights or use it on an enclosed porch.

The only drawback is that I'd probably end up with a bucket full of glass shards. LOL

I've wondered about lighting totems. Walmart has small solar light units for $4 each. They're on stakes to go into the ground. I might buy one and figure out a way to use it in a totem.

An old car battery still has plenty power left and can power up many LEDs for many weeks on one charge.

dcarch

i bought some of the LED christmas lights at target after the holidays. i had bought the yard stakes to put them on also but they got packed up. i found some at biglots this past week so as soon as i get them staked out i'll take a pic. they have such a pretty blue color.
btw if y'all have a harbor freight nearby the sale beginning- i think- this coming friday the have a set of solar lights like the ones at walmart but cheaper

Here is a link that might be useful: harbor freight