Most fairy lights are a bare bulb on a wire. These are not. Each light sits inside a pierced metal ball, so instead of just glowing it throws the cut-out pattern outward, and the wall or paving underneath ends up scattered with little shapes. Off in daylight they read as small gold ornaments strung through the garden. On at night they do something no plain string light does.

Why It Stands Out

• The pattern is the product — the pierced ball projects, so you light the surfaces around it as well as the string. Under a pergola roof or against a wall, that is the reason to buy these over ordinary globe string lights.
• Metal, not plastic — punched metal with a gold finish. It holds its shape and does not go brittle and chalky after one summer.
• Solar, so they go anywhere — the panel has its own ground spike. No power point, no extension lead down the yard, nothing to run.
• On by itself at dusk — a light sensor does it. Set the mode you like once and it comes on by itself every night after that.
• Eight modes — steady for dinner outside, slow fade and twinkle for atmosphere, chasing and waves at Christmas.
• Warm white or multicolour, in three lengths — 5 m / 20 lights, 6.5 m / 30, or 7 m / 50 for a dense run.

Where to Hang Them

• Pergola or verandah beam — the classic spot, and where the pattern lands somewhere you see it. Proper pergola lights and verandah lights.
• Through a tree — frangipani, jacaranda, a potted olive. Run them along branches rather than round the trunk.
• Down a fence or garden wall — draped as fence lights, with the pattern thrown back onto the palings or render.
• Gazebo, deck railing and over the alfresco table — 7 m does a decent run. Gazebo lights, deck lights and patio string lights with no wiring.
• Balcony and courtyard — exactly what these suit, because there is no power point out there. Balcony lights and backyard lights in one.
• Christmas — outdoor christmas lights that suit a warm December evening, on the verandah or through the tree out the front. The multicolour set is the festive one, and it works again for a Halloween party.

How It Works

1. The panel charges through the day — a solar cell on a spike feeding a built-in rechargeable Ni-MH battery. No batteries to buy.
2. A light sensor turns the string on at dusk, every night, automatically.
3. The mode button cycles the eight effects and holds the one you pick.

How to Put Them Up

1. Charge first — switched off, panel in full sun for a whole day.
2. Panel in the sun, not with the lights — the lead lets the panel sit on the sunny edge of a bed while the string runs under a shaded pergola. Tilt it north; lying flat it collects less.
3. Uncoil the whole string on the ground first — untangling it in the air is how the wire kinks.
4. Support it every metre with cable ties, hooks or plant ties. Never hang the weight off the wire between two far-apart points.
Tip: hang them where there is a surface about half a metre behind — a wall, a fence, a pergola roof or dense foliage. That is what the pattern lands on, and it is the whole effect.

Care and Maintenance

• Wipe the panel every few weeks — dust on the cell is the main reason solar garden lights fade early.
• Rinse the balls occasionally — the cut-outs collect cobwebs, and a blocked pattern is a dull pattern.
• Bring them in for hail, and coil loosely for storage somewhere dry with the panel charged rather than flat.

Specifications

What's Included

• 1 × Solar Moroccan ball light string in the length and colour you select
• 1 × Solar panel with ground spike and rechargeable battery