100 Days: Chandelier Tease

This could be my favorite Halfland creation to date. It's one of those things that happen when I give myself the luxury of time to build things like this. I didn't know what or how I wanted the cottage chandelier exactly. I knew I wanted it to look at first glance like a normal crystal chandelier but then when one looked closer, it would be "half" somehow.

Ester Jantzen
brought over a huge box of genuine vintage chandelier crystals on a previous visit. She had salvaged them from somewhere and intuited I could make use of them. Bless her. I started taking the brass wired strands apart to grade the crystal sizes and was searching my mind for how to translate them into the set. I hit upon using the amazing wooden myrtle pods that Halfland's Official Naturalist, Marci Knowles, sent me several months back.

When I set an open myrtle pod over the top of a small crystal drop, like a half woodland/half traditional chandelier would be--I went bananas! That was my answer. To blend the two worlds together in one element.

When I looked at all my reference images of interesting Halflandian chandeliers and was wondering how I could make six similar chandelier arm shapes I struck upon the notion of using crooks in the large collection of seasoned natural tree branches I had on hand here. I attached them together in a spoke pattern using drilled holes and coiled wire joints, cut them to length and fashioned candle holders out of wooden shapes and real nutmeg pods that Marci had sent earlier. (Where would I be without ma' girls?!) The holders were harmonized as one piece with iron paint and rust.

I proceeded to make led-lighted candles and waxed vellum shades for each holder out of small plastic cups with iron-painted rims top and bottom. The pattern on the shades was made by daubing sumptuous red pastel dust with liquid beeswax with my finger tips. It made an interesting spider web pattern that I then coated with burnished hard beeswax to preserve. The translucent shades appear red during daylight and glow warmly in amber at night.

Looking forward to finishing this piece and installing it in the very center of Rana's roof.

Comments

  1. I can hardly wait to see the finished product!!! This is so amazing to watch come together!! I'm so glad Marcie turned me on to your blog. She knew I'd love it!! And isn't Marcie a doll~~REAL to the bone!!!! I know she's gonna read this that's why I said it!!!HEHE~~ No, I do mean it!! She's a great friend!!Can't wait for the big tada!!

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  2. Your A-Mazeing Miz Shelley! So fun to see what your doing and,,,and ,,, the sneak peek movies,, I really enjoyed them. So clever, and talented you are.
    Marcie
    glad the cyan worked

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  3. This looks like it will be glorious!
    ( which is not surprising, but still thrilling...)

    I wish you would do a post on raw materials you might be looking for.
    I need to de-stash soon, And I'd love to send some goodness your way.

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  4. HI Deborah, Welcome to Halfland (Officially). Be sure to stay in touch for the release of the next highly- collectible Halfland memorabilia button! They are given out to any visitors here who would like one. They are made as limited editions so the first and second buttons are already gone. But number three should be out fairly soon. (I'm pretty sure it will feature the little chirruping feathery fashion fiends.)

    Things move slowly in Halfland. But they do move.

    HI Halfland's Official Naturalist (HON) Man, the things you sent me are perfect! When you first sent a huge box of the myrtle pods I thought I could only use them for forest ground debris, which was helpful enough, but when I started using them and the other pods as functional shapes, things got real interesting real fast. You wonderful dear!

    HI Bethany! aka the ubertalented Bitter Betty, Thank you! My answer to you kind offer (!) is a.) to please use your intuition rather than brain. and b.) If you see something laying on the ground that seems like a fit (and it's not too heavy to mail) I'd love it. Especially if it is interesting pods or cleanish nests or [empty] wasp hives (for the bees under the roots in the cottage) or growing teacup saucer shaped leaves I can dry (scale would be the circle you thumb and forefinger make whilst gesturing "ok!")

    Having your eyes out looking would be sensational! I'll have to give you an agent title too. How about Hunter of Unique Material, a Halfland "HUMMER", in the bird sense or as in the description of someone "in a state of great activity" ?

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  5. Um, I need a set of these shades for my dining room chandelier...really. So good!

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  6. Hi Shelley, I can't wait to see the chandelier when it's finished! I was wondering if your candles are real wax? A friend of mine shared with me how she makes faux candles that look really real, and they can have drips on them too, but they're polymer clay and they won't melt if they get hot. if you're interested, it's in the comments section on this page: http://vanessies.deviantart.com/art/Day-of-the-dead-cabinet-in-1-129831252

    Anyway, I hope this helps, and you keep up the amazing work. Thanks for sharing everything with us!

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  7. Thank you, Amy! Now that I look at the photos again, the shades remind me of a cocktail of some kind. I forget the name of it. Sunrise something, with orange juice and some red--found it thank you google--Tequila Sunrise!

    ...the cocktail is named for the way it looks after it has been poured into a glass. The denser ingredients (cassis or grenadine) settle, creating gradations in color that mimic a sunrise.

    yeah, that's it.

    Hi Thessaly Rose, Thank you. Van Essies candles look really realistic that great work, thanks!

    I couldn't find it on my blog (? Tried really hard) but there were a few posts about my hollow tube, dipped-in-melted wax, LED balloon light filled candles in Halfland. I wanted an actual light around the candles (not the flame those will be added via computer effect)

    Thank you for being here!

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  8. "To blend the two worlds together in one element." A perfect blend! Another piece found the other half in Halfland... I like the color of the shades. Red during daylight and amber at night. One of my favorite colors I choose for our house here.

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  9. Woo. Sounds nice.

    I like to think of color in these projects. Rana's palette was chosen many year ago now.

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  10. Very cool Shelly!

    I have been missing from your blog for a bit.....and POW!!!!

    Youve done a TON since my last visit....which wasnt that long ago I thought??

    excellent work and all this progress has to feel good.

    jriggity

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  11. Thanks, Justinigity, Man! xoxo

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  12. It should be creatively beautiful, they way you describe it.

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  13. Thank you, MountainSan, I am hoping you are right. Welcome to Halfland!

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  14. oh this is amazing. can't wait to see more.

    i love orange!

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  15. HI Denise, welcome to halfland. When you signed your comment, "I love Orange" I thought you were the woman with the blog of that name! There's also a young man who's photostream is called that too, he's single, just saying... (he's 20!)

    http://www.flickr.com/people/i_love_orange/

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