Just My Imagination

Woohoo! Pipe cleaners are conductive, sez my lovely multimeter.
Edit: Gasp! It looks like not only are they conductive, but it appears the manufacturing process that wraps the wires around the fiber is precise enough that the two wires that traverse the pipe cleaner are actually electronically insulated from each other.
"Stress tests" (ie. me bending, twisting, and untwisting one for a while) indicate the wires break sooner than the fibers come out enough to cause the two wires to touch.

I guess I don't have to make my own, but I decided to try anyway.

How to Make Pipe Cleaners

Fold a piece of wire in half. Wrap felt roving (fuzzy bits of wool right before the spinning-into-yarn phase) around half of the wire. Twist the two halves of the wire (the fuzz-covered one and the other one) together until you feel they will hold the fibers on. Use scissors to cut the edges so bits of fiber can stick out. You can vary the thickness across the pipe cleaner for different effects.

My first attempt looks a bit like a shrimp.


Second came out more pipe-cleaner-like.