How To Make A Chandelier Wreath

When I was looking on the internet on how to make a 

wreath on a chandelier (so I could copy one that I had 

seen at a store), all I could find was how to make a 

wreath into a chandelier.  I already have a chandy...

I just wanted to embellish it. 

I didn't realize how cock-eyed the shades were till I saw this picture. 

Here's how I put a wreath ON a 

chandy in case you want to try it too!

My chandy is one that I painted and added stuff to to try

to make it look like an Italian chandy...couldn't afford

the real thing. Click here to see "The Chandy Challenge".

At first I thought I would gather vines and add them

 to the chandy (to add a base for and a place to attach

  flowers) but I opted to buy a pre-made  grapevine wreath.

I wasn't sure if the 18" or 24" would be better so I got both.

The 24" one worked better on my size chandy. 

To get the wreath around the arms of the chandy, I knew 

that I needed to cut it.  A hand saw did not work well.

Cutting each of the vines on the wreath at one place

 on the wreath with garden clippers worked better. 

The shades on the chandy were removed so the cut vine

wreath could be stretched out at the opening and slipped

 onto the lower arms of the chandy more easily.  

After the cut ends of the wreath came back together in
a circle, they stayed without being wired back together.
Another wreath, another chandy might need wire to
keep the ends together. 

Some stems of spring flowers came down out of the attic

(some of them never used before).

Most of what I had was long-stemmed flowers but you

can used shorter stems also and push then into the grapevine.

The long stems had to be curved by bending slightly to

follow the curve of the wreath and chandy.

Floral wire also came in handy to help some stems and 

flowers to stay where I wanted them. 

A lot of the spring stems that I had on hand were dogwoods.

Real dogwood trees are in full bloom now here in Alabama.

Wild dogwood trees look like little white clouds in the woods.

The individual blooms are so detailed.

Their four petals form the shape of a cross.

The indentations at the end of each petal look like

blood-tinged nail holes.  The spike-y center reminds

us of a crown of thorns that Jesus wore. 

I just kept adding faux floral stems until it looked like enough.

It looks pretty even at night.

I did add a few wild vines to add some personality.

If you already have some faux florals that you could use,

the only cost (about $7) is for the grapevine wreath.

It took about an hour to put together.

The chandelier wreath floats above an Easter vignette

on the dining room table for now. 

In the future I could see the faux flowers coming off

the grapevine wreath and summer starfish and shells

replacing them for Summer.  Then autumn leaves

could take the chandelier wreath into the Fall season.
(Update...the wreath was taken down for Summer but
Fall leaves and berries were added for Autumn.)

I hope you have a blessed Easter Sunday!

The Chandy Challenge

A project that has taken me two years to finally

get done is at a "finished for now" point.

I have loved the Niermann Weeks Company's

Italian Chandeliers for years but knew I could

never afford the hefty price tag the chandys command.

To read an article about how the Niermann Weeks Company started making the

Italian chandeliers and many variations on it, see this interesting article.

I found a 9-light chandelier in a brown finish on the internet

for $75 that I thought I could embellish to make it

have some of the same features of the NW chandys.  It and

all of it's many parts sat and sat and sat around my house.

After a year of no activity on the brown chandy,

I thought that maybe if I started a blog, it would MAKE

me get that and other decorating projects done just

to have something to put ON the blog.

Ummm...it did get some activity when I bought a can of

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and gave it a coat of "Old White"

but then it sat for about another year.  Finally

(when the old dining room fixture kept falling off the ceiling, denting the table, broke the fixture glass,

leaving us with bare light bulbs and looking like a crack house)

with company coming, I had to stop procrastinating

and get the fixture done and hanging up.

I had held on to an inspiration magazine as a "go by".

I'm not positive that is a Niermann Weeks' chandy but it is similar.

Another inspiration chandy photo I held on to had acanthus

leaves on the arms...I liked that too.  I got a roll of flashing

and a metal cutter from Home Depot in the roofing department

to try to cut out leaves to add to my chandy.

Here is the paper pattern I made to trace onto the metal

to make the chandy leaves.

For the leaves for the small chandy arms, I just

used the top part of the original pattern.

Not content to have only one unfinished chandelier floating

from room to room in boxes, I had purchased another cheap

chandy on the internet with good "bones" for the bedroom.

It has kept the now-white chandy company for about a year

waiting for its transformation too.  Here I am working on

both of them hoping to get them up before my party.

Because the metal leaves had to bend along the curve

of the chandy arms, I glued them on in stages, waiting

a day between stages for the glue to dry and hold.

First Stage

Second Stage

Floral wire was used to hold the metal leaves in place along the arm and in contact with the glue.

Third Stage

After the leaves were stuck on pretty well,

they also got a coat of AS "Old White". 

To tell the truth, I was disappointed at this stage.

The chandy did not have the old, chippy look of the NW ones.

I was digging through my box of craft paints to try

to paint on some character and came across this product:

Should I try a totally unknown product on this project

I had thought about (and moved around) for so long?

I decided that I could always sand it off if I didn't like it.

Turns out that the texture crackle added so much

personality and faux age to the chandy.

It even filled in gaps between the chandy arms and the leaves.

A lot of the NW chandys have "hang-y down-y things"

dangling from the arms.  I was hoping to find wooden ones

pre-made but didn't have much luck,

so I tried to make some out of polymer clay. 

Before baking the dangles, I added a small metal pin

with a loop on top from the craft store jewelry section.

After baking, the dangles got a coat of texture paint also.

Bottom dangle is before texture crackle paint, top is after paint has been applied.

Not having much experience with polymer clay, I didn't

realize that they would flatten on one side while baking.

A very time-consuming task was to glue the rings onto

the arms that the dangles would hang from.  I tried all

kinds of "fast holding glues" but I still had to glue

and then hold, hold, hold, the ring in place till it took.

In retrospect, I should have glued the rings on BEFORE I added paint to the arms.  The glues did not like the paint.

Here is the nice electrician that came to hang the

"not quite finished" chandys before the party.  After he

left, I realized that all of the little rings had busted off

during the installation process. 

Some rings got put back on before the party so I

could attach the dangles, but some dangles just got

wired directly onto the arm at the last minute.

Ready for "show time":

After living with the dining room chandy for a

few days, I realized I was not completely happy with it.

 About this time, I was reading a blog post by Donna at

Funky Junk Interiors about getting projects done

and facing what you fear.  She challenged us to stop

procrastinating and get a put-off project completed

 in a week and blog about it.  I decided to get this chandy

FINISHED and not let it's incompleteness bother me

anymore.  I did get the chandy done in time but I

ran out of time to post about within a week.

Here are some chandy changes that I made:

I don't really like to see the working elements of a clear light

bulb but I didn't like the "whiteness" of the bulbs

that I had purchased for the chandy.  I had not planned

on putting shades on the bulbs but I got some $6 linen

shades at Hobby Lobby that I like very much.

The dangles got remade with more polymer clay.

This time I tried to support the curve so it would not

flatten during the baking process.  They are not

perfect and have a "home made" look that I am

telling myself might look "hand crafted" to some.

All dangles got re-glued rings to hang off of.

A whole variety of colors got dry-brushed on to give

the chandy more dimension.  I might add some darker

colors later but for summer, it has a light look.

Thanks, Donna, for challenging me to get this project done

and to be free from the mental weight of this (for so long)

unfinished but needed addition to my home.