the glass string chandelier

last saturday and sunday i spent 8 hours with my good pal deb working on a collaborative project. we decided to make a chandelier for the light exhibition the glass studio has coming up in two weeks time. we found the metal frame at a scrap yard, and then got to work with hot glass components.

we made the chandelier by setting up two pieces of wood to drape the hot glass strings over. the wood was set up to the same proportions as our metal frame. it took about an hour to work out exactly how we needed to do it to get it working every time.

once the glass was set we then took it off of the wood frame and moved it to the metal chandelier frame. by the end of 8 hours we were really good at this process.

at this point we thought it already looked good and we were well on our way with grand plans to make many more chandeliers. there was no stopping us. it was actually quite relaxing making the glass string components.

deb is in this frame putting in some of the final glass components, and to show the scale of the chandelier. i love how it sparkles in the light.

this is the final product. we still need to resolve the hanging system and internal lighting. the plan is to highlight the use of rusted metal with some rusted chain to hang it with and a simple over sized bulb hanging in the center.

as it turns out since then deb and i have spent the week thinking about the next one we are going to make and collecting materials for different frames. it really was nice to go from thinking about making something, and then actually making it from start to finish in roughly one day. we didn't want to get too hung up worrying about how we might move it or where it would go or how fragile it was. we just wanted to make it and see it done.

the act of making itself was just as rewarding as the finished object.