My Chandelier Project Is Finished

After all the years of making bath and body, candles and the like I felt myself being pulled in a different direction.  I no longer dreamed about soap.  I no longer dreamed about what colors I would use or what technique would make the swirl take shape.  I no longer desired to line the mold, measure the oils and butters, growl at the fur kids to leave my work space as I measured lye and liquids.  It was no longer enjoyable.  :~(  That made me SO incredibly sad.  

I started thinking about glass after my 15 yr old Pom died in late June.  I can honestly say, after a few weeks, I felt all the money I spent on glass and the tools for making stained glass pieces was a waste.  I didn't feel connected to the glass and didn't feel like I was moving in the right direction.  Let's not even talk about all the cuts and blood.  

 

 I threw caution to the wind and worked with what I could do.  Patterns and perfect cuts are SO not for me.  Even when I've made the line with a sharpie I can't always follow it.  When I embraced that I began making pieces I was happy with.  Then I sold my first set of chimes.  After I sold my first set of chimes I realized just how much fun glass can be.  I slowly learned that following a "straight" line is not the way I can freely express my own creativity.  I made several sets of chimes and added them to my shop.  Some of them are still there but for the most part I have restocked my shop quite a few times.  I've also sold several to Facebook friends and locals.  

SO in early November while thinking about what I would do for the sales rush of the holidays I decided to look for a new project.  At the time I had no idea what I wanted to do.  All I knew is I wanted to make something that was mine and belonged to me.  I didn't want to add it to my shop or make it for anyone else.  Then I found Metamorphosi.

 

 I love love love her style.  The thought of taking glass rings and turning it into something this beautiful made me smile.  I wanted to do that too.  Then I found upcyclebicycle . 

 

I knew what had to be "attempted".  I knew I had to attempt to make my own chandelier for my creative space.  I had some awesome glass and actually had a picture in my head of how I thought it would and should look.  So...I got started.  And that's as far as it went.  My ideas for the Holidays didn't pan out as I had planned and as I was chatting with John it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Bacon.  What?  Bacon.  I got busy.  Bought the containers and went on the hunt for the fragrance.  This was my best seller during the holiday rush and has been my best seller over everything I have ever sold while on Etsy. 

 I had SO much fun making and shipping these candles over the holiday rush.  Now that the holidays are over and we're in the new year and working on new projects for our shops and whatnot I can get back to my project.  My project is a way for me to escape the day to day.  I get my awesome noise cancelling headphones that John bought me for Christmas and get to it.  After all this time I still have the picture of what the chandelier would look like in my head.  

 

So these are the colors I used for the glass chandelier.  I wanted a wide variety of color but I also wanted something that wouldn't "clash" with the decor should I decide to move this to another room.  This glass was used for the outer layer of the chandelier.     

This is where we started.  I took the wheel from Katie's "little girl" bike.  Rust and all.  I brushed the dirt and debris off and went with it.  On day one I was only smoothing and drilling the glass as I came to the color.  Well....that was day one.

This past week I decided I was going to get it done.  Why not?!!??!  School was out on Friday and I knew I was going to need something to occupy my time when the kids had nothing else to do and were picking on each other because one wouldn't play a specific game with the other. SO....I decided to smooth ALL of the glass at once.  Took about an hour.  Then I decided to sort all of the glass.  The kids were home and John was working from home because of the snow we got.  Good thing too because the people who live in our neighborhood do NOT know how to drive and we saw several round the corner and slide right into the neighbor's front yard.  Idiot people.  ANYWAY...  I got all of the glass smoothed and we sorted the color pattern.  I took a picture and then started drilling.  I decided to double drill all of the glass just in case we decided to change something.  Yes....lots of people would have this worked out ahead of time.  I don't walk a straight line and don't design that way either.  I REALLY wanted this to be the end of it but realized the glass I had cut would not not not dampen the brightness of the bulb as I wanted and it simply wasn't enough to fill in all the holes.  SO.....since the girls were so far removed from showing interest in my light project I skipped right over them and John helped me with the colors for the inner layers.  Since the outer layers had all sorts of textures and whatnot we thought the inside glass just needed to "defuse" light. 

I loved the way the chandelier glowed.  I genuinely thought I was finished when I took this picture.  Until.......I started looking at it again.  Grrrr....The third and forth rows on the inside had to be removed so I could add them both around the second row.  When I originally did the second row it was a strand of glass on every other spoke.  This time John and I added a piece of heavy gauge wire around the wheel and it keeps the strands from sliding forward to the bulb.  GENIUS idea that John came up with.  So the outer edge has 28 strands of glass and the inside row also has 28 strands of glass.

It still needs something.  SO...Are you still with me?  The outer rim has 28 strands of glass.  The inside has 56 strands of glass.  I added more rings to the glass that hang from the upper spokes which allows them to now hang lower than the other strands.  It defuses the light exactly as I had hoped but SO needed a little more. 

There!  Finished.  I only added glass to half of the strands (14).  This gave it the little extra it needed to finally get me to STOP.  I still need to get a different bulb because this one is uber uber hot.  John added the switch along the chain so I can turn it off there instead of going through the glass each time.

Final numbers are 84 pieces of glass on the outside.
56 pieces of glass on the bottom layer of spokes.
42 pieces of glass on the upper layer of spokes.
714 stainless steel and copper rings connecting it all together. 

And after all of this what have we learned?
A) this was a harder project than I expected it to be.
B) it is VERY hard on the hands.
C) when you think you're finished you aren't.
D) there's always one more thing to do and then ANOTHER to undo it and yet one more to do something else.
E) when you finally finish it and hang it for the 25th time you have a calming sense of relief come over you and you want to collapse and cry.....until you realize there's glass on the floor and you need to sweep.
F) when you walk into the room the next day....after an awesome sleep....and see it for the first time as the morning light shines through.....you get a little teary-eyed.  WHY?  Because you can bask in the glory of knowing you are finished and.....MAN...It's PRETTY!

Would I sell it?  Erm....no.  Not this one.  But I WILL be happy to make one for you and charge you $650 plus shipping.  You will have to have someone do the light kit for you though.  And yes.....once my hands have had a little break I will be making another one.  I think I need one next to my chair in the living room.