DIY Chandelier

Alright everyone here is my bead project for round one of the One Artsy Mama Craft Contest. 

When I found out that our project was beads this week I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I had just seen pictures of a family friends wedding where they used a chandelier as decoration. Their chandelier was similar to the one I made but without the lamp shade and cute ruffle. After asking If I could come take a look at the chandelier I knew I could make one on my own and wanted one for my daughters room. This chandelier is made from a lamp shade found at Deseret Industries (pretty much a Goodwill) and fabric I found at a garage sale. The beads are from one of those beaded doorway curtains we all used to love when we were a kid! This project was so simple and easy to make and I am so excited to be able to finally post the tutorial on my blog.

 The first thing I did was head to D.I. and pick out my lamp shades. I needed three of them. When you are picking out lamp shades be looking at the size of the top metal ring. This is the piece of the lamp shade we will be using. 

I paid a a total of 4.50 for the lamp shades.  The cylinder lamp shade is essential for this project so make sure you are able to find one of these. It should also have the largest metal ring. Here is what you are trying to recreate so that you have an idea of what to look for.

After coming home I set the cylinder lamp shade aside and tore the other two lamp shades apart. 

You will only be using the top metal piece of the lamp shades

 Here is what mine looked like after I tore mine apart. The next thing you will want to do it take wire cutters and cut the center out of your rings. WE STILL ARE NOT TOUCHING THE CYLINDAR LAMP SHADE. Excuse me for yelling I just wanted to make sure you heard me. We need the middle of the the cylindar lamp shade.

So now that you have two metal rings set them on top of the metal center piece of your cylindar lamp shade like so.

We will be attaching these with wire but to make sure they did not mover around in the process I hot glued them on first. After you have done that wrap your craft wire around your metal rings where they intersect with the metal frame from your cylinder lamp shade.

After you do that you are ready to recover your lamp shade. I used fabric I found at a garage sale. I bought about 5 yards for $2 dollars!

To do this cut a strip of fabric that is long enough and wide enough that you will be able to fold it over toward the inside of you lamp shade. Hot glue the fabric to both outer ends of the lamp shade.

It should look like this when you are done

Then begin to fold your excess fabric inward and glue it to the inside of your lamp shade.

Time for the RUFFLES!

The fabric I was using frayed really bad and I wanted to have a clean edge on my ruffle so I cut strips that were about 4 inches wide and folded the ends inward toward themselves like so

You will also want to use pins to hold your fold in place while you are sewing. I for the life of me could not find my pins so i just went without. If you are using a fabric that does not fray as easily as this one did you can just cut strips and skip the folding and ironing part. There are several ways to make a ruffle. I made mine by using a clear elastic that you pull tight and sew right over the top of.

It looks like this. This is the fastest and easiest way to make ruffles. The tighter you pull the tighter your ruffles are.

Here are my ruffles after being sewed.

When you have enough ruffle you can start attaching them to the lamp shade. I used hot glue to attach mine.

I really don't like the idea of using hot glue while sewing but since this chandelier was going to be up high where no one would mess with it I decided it would be fine.

After all your ruffles are on we get to start attaching the beads. I had originally picked out these crystal beads from Save On Crafts but after a very frustrating phone called I realized that the company and screwed up my order and was not willing to do anything to keep me as a happy customer. I was going to have to pay an extra $40 dollars to get the beads to me on time. No Way was I about to do that so I cancelled my order and started to brain storm about where I could get more beads. 

I remembered that when I went over to look at the original chandelier that had inspired me the mother of the bride pulled out a clear beaded curtain that they had used at the wedding. I called her up to see if she had any plans for the curtain. Luckily she didn't and she was willing to give it to me! I felt terrible just taking it from her so I asked where she bought it and looked up the price online. The curtain was $20 dollars at an online store called Shop Wild Things. I had my mom go pick up the curtain for me and leave a $20 under her door mat. It all turned out for the better because I ordered two strands of 30 foot long beads that were $20 dollars each from Save On Crafts. I used a total of $129 feet! I would have had to pay $60 just in beads if I had stuck with the Save On Craft beads. Here is the curtain after getting all tangled up. These took forever to untangle!

After cutting all my bead strands to the length I wanted them I began glueing. 

The first row of beads you will glue directly to the inside of your lamp shade. After you finish this step you will want to cover the inside of you lamp shade so that when it is hanging from the ceiling you cant see the ugly inside. To do this cut another strip of fabric and fold your ends in.

Then start attaching it with your hot glue gun. By doing this you also wont be able to see the row of beads you just glued to the inside of your lamp shade. This will help give your project a more finished look.

Now you can start glueing all the other crystals to the two metal rings you attached earlier. All I did to attach these was put a dab of glue on the metal and then folded the crystals over the metal so that the string between the crystals was in the glue. I also waited till the glue was a little cooled off but still moldable. I then pinched the glue inward so that it covered the string and my string was encased in glue. As long as your kids are not jumping on the bed and swatting at the chandelier these should stay on. If you need to, use wire to attach the beads the same we we attached them with hot glue.

Here is what it should look like after attaching all the beads.

The next step is to drop a pendant light in your chandelier. My suggestion to you would be to go online  and find the strongest wattage pendant you can. We went to Lowes and all they had was a 60 watt pendant. You are only using ONE bulb to light your entire room. Having a pendant that has a higher wattage or that is able to hold more than one bulb is IMPORTANT. You don't want to finish your chandelier, flip the switch and realize it doesn't put off enough light to light up the room. The 60 watt pendant does a fine job but I do wish it were just a tad brighter. 

I also wanted one of these decorative ceiling medallions. I found this one at the Re-Store for $2!

I didn't like the strange holes in the middle of the roses though so I filled them with wall spackle

After that dried I spray painted the medallion, my pendant light, and ceiling cap of the pendant so the black wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.

While that is drying you will want to sew a sleeve to hide the chain or cord of your pendant. Measure how long you want your chain to hang down from the ceiling. Take that measurement and double it. This is how long you want your fabric to be. My fabric was 5.5 inches wide. If you are using a chain you will want to go another inch or two wider since the chain is thicker. When you are ready turn your fabric over so that the inside is facing you. Then fold each end about an inch on top of itself and sew it in place. After you have done this on both side fold your fabric long ways and pin it.(MAKE SURE YOU ARE STILL WORKING WITH THE INSIDE OF YOUR FABIC) Then you will take the same clear elastic we used to make the ruffles and sew in on the side of your fabric that both of your unfinished ends meet.

Now you will turn your sleeve inside so that the inside of the fabric you have been working with is where it should be...on the inside.

Here is what it should look like when you are done.

Now we are ready to hang your chandelier! 

Most likely you will have to shorten your cord. Feed your shortened cord through the small center ring of your lamp shade.

Then feed your cord through your sleeve

and then through the ceiling cap of your pendant.

You will probably need two people to finish hanging your chandelier. One to hold the medallion and connect the wires and another to hold the chandelier. Make sure you or someone working with you knows how to correctly connect the wires!!!! This is extremely important! If done wrong you could start an electrical fire.

Here is my final product one more time. When I stepped back I noticed the chandelier was sitting slightly crooked from the weight not being distributed evenly. All I did was balance the weight out by pulling a piece of the inside fabric away from the glue and dropping something that had a little weight to it inside. Call it creativity or absolutely ghetto but it worked and I love the way it turned out!  I was also quite pleased with the way the plastic crystal beads look!