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.

Crazy When Company's Coming

Sadly, I am not an organized person.

When I was reading a book on organizing/decluttering the
 home, most of it seemed too strict to me except for a little
 gem of advice....

The author said that if the only time you really

get your house picked up is when company is

coming, then have company over often.

About the middle of the month, we decided to have

friends over for a party on Memorial Day (end of month).

This meant completely cleaning out the carport

that had become a depository for things that could

not fit in the attic.
  
I am talking about only the front end of

one of the cars could  fit in the two-car carport.

And, of course, to try to finish any home decorating

project that had been started or almost started.

Aside from my job, getting the house ready for the

party completeley took over my life (blogging fell by the

wayside but I did take pictures along the way to post later).

The party was fun! No one seemed to notice that some

of the projects were only half-finished.  At least the carport

was totally cleaned out and was "Grilling Central".

I had wanted to "French-i-fy" my living room more to go

with the print over the mantle but here is what I ended up with:

Instructions for making the burlap covered bottle can be found here.

To tie in the pops of orange in the Eiffel Tower print/painting,

I made a couple of pillows with orange also.

To save money, the fronts of the pillows are a nice

tapestry fabric but the backs are some left over linen.

I think that weird crease in the middle came from the fabric being folded so long

waiting to be made into a pillow.  Maybe it will go away.

My French milk maid "bronze" (I found out after I bought her at an

auction that she is only ceramic) got a more substantial base (but

not a matching color yet) for the party.  She is standing on

my book by Annie Sloan "Creating the French Look".

Another "bronze" statue that got a base makeover was this

man in a circle I bought at Stein Mart.  I think he was a

very reasonable price because his original base was a

funky black and blue combo. I painted the base to match better.

He is standing in front of two posters that I got half off at

Hobby Lobby.  I was ready for a change from the

architectural prints that had been in those frames for a

couple of years.  The prints had glass over them that were

quite "glare-y" certain times of the day. 

 I used the same method of making a print into a painting 

with these but I also tried to add a crackle medium to them.

 The crackle didn't work too well but it did add great 

dimension to the prints.

I got the Eiffel Tower print because it was obviously French but needed a partner for it.

The hot air balloon was a companion by the same artist.  I remembered that the first hot air

balloon trial was actually IN France...animals were used in the basket as "passengers".

With the clear gel medium and the crackle medium over

these colorful posters/prints, they don't need glass over

them.  They remind me of the carnival canvases that

Frank and Mike on "American Pickers" found.

I used some antiquing medium to try to get the crackling to

show up on the posters.  It didn't work for that but I did

brush it on the frames to try to knock down the shine of

the gold leafing that I had put on the frames a while back.

For fun, I tried to add the crackle medium on a old calendar print

of a French painting.  It didn't really work on it either...

...but it still made it look similar to a real painting.

I am trying to catch the glare in this photo so you can see some of the dimension.

In the living room I also re-worked one of the bookshelves

to have less books and more interesting objects.

Some changes happened in the dining room too.

Finally a chandelier got hung...

...even though it is not finished.

After years of pondering, I AM going to paint this bookcase

but I ran out of time.  At least I took the books out for a

lighter look.  The sconces that have been gold with black

candles for years got a coat of white paint but they,

too, are not completely done.

  I "made" some more milkglass with inexpensive glass vases

and bowls I have been collecting for "such a time as this".

The master bedroom also is sporting a less-than-finished

chandy now.  I don't have very high ceilings so working on the

light fixtures while they are hanging is not too hard.

More background on the master bedroom is available by clicking on

Striving for Symmetry and A Tale of Three Mirrors.

The long pillow on the bed is another project that I

have had the material for for a quite a while . 

Since there were already patterns going on in the curtains,

bedskirt, coverlet and pillows, I had a hard time deciding

on what to make the long pillow out of.  I like this material

because it is more like embroidery than a pattern

and picks up the other colors in the room.

This pillow is very simple to make; sew shape you want,

make Turkish corners if you like, stuff with polyester batting.

This pillow is still a little lumpy but (and you won't be

surprized) this pillow still has the stuffing opening not

sewn closed so I can work with it some more.

When party time came, I stopped being crazy about getting

projects done and just had a great time.