d.i.why not? ceiling jewelry!

so, on friday i was able to finally finish the pendant light i designed for my hallway and i have to say i am pretty proud of how it turned out! since i used my metal smithing class to work on it i like to call it jewelry for my ceiling!  oh and my friends in class were cheering me on and giving me helpful suggestions throughout the process which was pretty awesome...  i have to say i love the results and the effect it creates in my newly striped hallway is exactly what i was going for! oh and the bedroom wall looks pretty cool with it too ... now i just need a cool rug (leopard print, i think!) to finish the look!


see below for the details on how i did it if you want to recreate your own spotted brass pendant!

i started with these supplies and a rough sketch on a post-it but ended up modifying slightly in order to achieve the look i wanted... scroll to the bottom of this post for the full materials list:

first i took my sheets of very thin brass and used my circle template (who knew i would still have use for my drafting supplies??) to draw my design on the first piece.

then i used a tool we have in class called a disc cutter and a hammer to cut the holes in the brass sheets. i think that you can probably do this with a good hole puncher as this brass was pretty thin and easy to work with...

i used the first sheet with the punched holes as a template to trace all the others.... and once finished with the hole punching i lined them up and marked where i was going to drill holes to attach them to each other using rivets. i made my own rivets using 10 gauge soft brass wire but borrowed these from a friend and wished i had more because they were so easy to use and worked well! all you need is a hammer and a thick nail. my original plan was to weave thin wire through drilled holes so i drilled more holes than i needed... you just need to do 3 (top middle and bottom) for the end of each sheet you are attachnig. i  used a total of 4 brass sheets for the top shade and 2 for the bottom shade.

and i painted the light bulb holder and ceiling plate with the same gold paint  i used on my walls.

to attach the smaller shade to the larger i drilled 4 matching holes in the top of the bottom piece and also the bottom of the top piece in order to thread a 10 gauge straight piece of brass wire through each side (note that i did not end up using the brass tubing or the 16 gauge wire that i started with from osh. instead i used 10 gauge soft brass wire).  i also soldered 3 spokes (i cut from the same 10 gauge wire) to a circle of brass in order to attach the top piece to the pendant holder (again, you could probably achieve the same look by just bending wire spoke around a circle of brass without the soldering). this way i just needed to slip it over the part that holds the bulb and screw the open round plastic donut (i have no idea what this plastic piece is called but it comes with the pendant kit i used!) to hold it in place.

i had a friend help guide me when attaching the pieces while hanging.   i waited to cut the excess wire after threading them through to top and bottom piece. i just used needle nose pliers to bend the ends in order to hold them in place.

the great thing about these materials is that they are lightweight and easy to manipulate to get the balance right on your ceiling... oh and not only does this light fixture brighten the otherwise flat gold stripes, it also helps to mask the slight dripping and feathering that occurred while painting them. i wish i had learned about the green painters tape prior to this project! scotch blue tape was not my friend when painting my unevenly textured walls... i still need to do a smidge of touch up work...

and here it is!

i think it even looks cool unlit (yeah, this hallway really does get no natural light at the high point... even better that i have this groovy new light!)....

this is what my hall light looked like before... gross old  halogen fixture... the stripes and the pendant sure jazz it up!

materials list below:

• 6 brass sheets measuring 4" x 10" and .010 thickness
• 10 gauge soft brass wire 
• pendant kit
• rivets
• paint in antique gold
• circle template
• needle nosed pliers
• wire cutters
• disc cutter or hole puncher that works for metal
• drill

office reveal photos coming later this week... i will be busy at my internship tomorrow... i can't believe this is my 50th post!  i have come such a long way from my first post...

oh and if you didn't already know... i created a facebook page... check it out and "like" it! and follow me on twitter! once i figure out how to add the widget to the home page for my blog i will do so... this modern technology can sometimes be a bit overwhelming..

until next time...

 the almost 40 year old intern