I want to start making my own lighting fixtures/chandeliers. Here are some cool designs by other people that I’ve run into throughout the Internet:
Zettle’z by Ingo Maurer via. Made of wire, bear clips, and rice paper. Approximate price tag: $1,000.
Tide by Stuart Haygarth via. Made of man-made items that washed up on the beach. Approximate price tag: $10,000+.
Free as a Bird by Eva Menz via. Made of Origami cranes. Approximate price tag: $1,000.
Flowerball by Heath Nash via. Made of recycled plastics. Approximate price tag: ???
DIY Sparkleball via. Made of plastic cups and Christmas lights. Approximate price tag: less than $10.
Granted, some of these are cheaper looking and/or tackier than others, but I think one of the neat parts about making any lighting fixture similar to these would be the process of getting all the parts, either by collecting, making, or buying. Plus, I think deciding how to engineer such a fixture would be interesting. I think I’d never get tired of having such an interesting lighting fixture to look at.
So far I’ve bought some plastic hoops which have been spray painted white. My plan is to drill into these and attach them together to make a sphere. Eventually I want to try an old trick that a friend taught me. You see, when I was in college, I was a bit of a nerd and didn’t have much of a social life. A friend taught me how to make paper flowers, and perhaps due to my lack of social life, I made a lot of them. ^_^ See below:
So, what I want to do is make some flowers like the ones above, although probably out of recycled plastic, and attach them to the sphere I will make. I think it would be great to have green viney tendrils curling around and hanging from the sphere, too. I just need to pop in a low-heat lightbulb, and hopefully I’ll have a one-of-a-kind very cool lighting fixture. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
March 5th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
You can use 2liter soda bottles to make a chandelier. Cut them in half, and then cut 2/3 of the way through lengthwise about 4 or 5 times. Use a candle and hold the cut part above the candle, this takes a little practice. It will smooth, melt, and distort the plasic. To help get the shape you want, use a pair of pliers while using the candle and twist in the direction you want. Pull it in toward the center of the bottle and you can make flowers shapes. When you finish the first half of the bottle, put it inside the second half before you melt it. This way you will have one flower part inside and one outside. When you finish with all the flowers you need you can spray paint with a stained glass paint you can buy at craft stores. Hot glue them onto plastic canvas and attach the plastic canvas together with wire. Attach this to a light fixture or shade. You’ll end up with a fixture that looks like a Chihuly!
March 7th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Susan or Anyone Else:
Does anyone have a picture of this or a blog about it or know what this procedure is called? This sounds like such an awesome idea, but I’m having trouble visualizing it. Do you cut both halves of the bottle? And which part do you put inside? Please help! This idea seems so awesome, and my boyfriend drinks 2 liters like they’re going out of style, so I thik I’ll be able to do it.