Wax Paper Capiz Shell Tabletop Chandelier

I've been seeing lots of chandeliers made of faux capiz shells out in blogland
 with some made out of wax paper, plastic cups, laminated rice paper,
 even wax paper mod podged onto parchment paper.

I figured I can do that and so, I did!

 I chose a $2 thrist store tabletop lamp for the bookcase in our hallway.

And I love the way this came out!

It has a soft glow, great texture and a bit of movement when you walk by.
 Even The Welding Man likes it, he says it reminds him of a wedding dress. :o)

I took two lamp shades from my stash and removed the covers. I knew I wanted the rings to be larger at the top and smaller at the bottom. So I wired them together and even added another ring with craft wire secured with florist wire.

 What is needed is a sturdy shape with at least two different sized rings to hold your fake shells in layers.

After a coat of white spray paint I flipped it over and got all my fake capiz shell circles ready.

Dollar Store wax paper, baby!!

Next I made the wax paper "shells." I used a dry iron on cotton and put
 parchment paper on the bottom between the ironing board and wax paper.

Four sheets torn off close to the same size melt together nicely
and make a good, stiff 4 ply sheet. Let the wax paper cool then start punching.
 I found my punches did best with 4 sheets of 4 ply wax paper,
 your punch might do better with more or less.

I used a 2" and an 1 3/4" circle punch. I figured I needed about 400 circles total,
plus I cut a few extra in case of mistakes or design changes.

I sewed my circles together using my machine's longest stitch and placed 9 circles on each "run."
 I sewed several sets of nine together in a single sitting with about three inches
of thread between each set. I cut them apart into sets
 of nine and started assembling.

I wound the thread from one set of circles twice around the middle ring and put a dab of hot glue over the thread. I placed each string of circles about 1" apart.

For the top ring I let six of the circles on a string hang down outside
and folded the other three over inside the frame, using a dab of hot glue
 on the thread at the top. This gave the upper half of the lamp a fluffier look
 and more visual "weight."

Extra circles folded in half and hot glued around the upper ring give the lamp a finished look.

As you can see, the stitched circles diffuse the light and overlap nicely, giving a nice soft glow to the evening. During the day they give that corner a bit of reflected light and nice texture.

I am already thinking ahead to doing this with my dining room light. Maybe with a little color and a bit of glitter? When I figure it out and make it I'll be posting right here.

Book Page Chandelier

I made this book page chandelier today, and I LOVE the way it came out!

It's Sunday, and I decided to do something fun and frivolous for my craft room. It started when we changed a light bulb in my overhead light and this was sitting on my work top.

Hmmm, I don't want to just hang this back up there. I wonder if hot glue will hold string on glass?

This curvy red chandelier is going up there eventually, once The Welding Man checks if it needs rewired and makes sure it is safe. $7 at a thrift store, baby! It will be perfect when it's done.

With all the book page recycling I've used in my craft studio, I decided to make a temporary chandelier using a circle punch. I knew I'd need at least 450 circles, so I made 500. I could do 5 pages at a time and get 7 circles from each set of pages, so this did not take long at all.

I also used this gorgeous butterfly punch and made about 50 of them out of heavier paper, since they have so many open spaces, the book pages are too fragile to use the way I planned.

I sewed 12 circles and 1 butterfly together for each 18" long string.

A dot of hot glue holds the lightweight strings perfectly. If I ever want to return the glass shade to it's original condition, the glue pops off with a little help from my heat gun.

The book pages I used were very delicate, so this happened early on. I just used a glue stick on another circle and put it over the top, covering the tear and the thread.

The repair does not even show once all the strings are glued on. I sewed about a dozen strings and had to do alot of repairs. There had to be a better way.

So I changed tactics and laid out the circles and butterflies then stretched some crochet thread across them, securing them with dots of hot glue. A dot of hot glue on the string holds it down on the table and makes it easier to lay across the hot glue on the circles. This was just as fast and easy as sewing them together! Before lifting the string of circles up get rid of glue wisps with a heat gun.

Here are a sewn string and several glued strings side by side. I prefer the cleaner look of the glued strings.

And here is the chandelier put back in place over the light fixture. I like it. I like it alot!

I LOVE the random placement of the butterflies!

It diffuses the bright overhead light nicely without making the room feel dark or shadowy. I will try to get some shots in the daylight and see if it still makes me happy. I have a hunch it will! So that was fun, throwing away my "to do" list and creating something on a whim. Sometimes you just have to go for it!