DIY Chandelier

I've been obsessing over the beachy "Hollywood Regency" inspired bamboo chandeliers for awhile now such as this one (which costs thousands, btw):



I like the white one, but I really preferred a black wrought-iron looking one... So I here goes a fun & very inexpensive experiment.

I bought a standard Ikea chandelier for $39 to install in the guest room. The installation really couldn't have been easier-I love ikea! The chandelier looks pretty fantastic all on its own and works well with the dimmer switch for a cool effect.

The bamboo twist would be the experimentation... I wanted to create an ocean front Italian villa look... evoking palm trees but with out being too tropical. Such as:




I went out & bought nontoxic crayola "model magic" clay in black from michael's for $2.99.



One bag was more than enough for 5 palm pieces. I started rolling out "t" shaped peices of clay to cut the leaves out of:


Which ended up looking like ninja stars :) I cut the airy/ spongy clay with scissors since it was so easy to work with, hand pinched the leaves to create an organic texture, and cut holes large enough to lay over the entire light source in each cup of the chandelier.



After that I placed and hand molded each ninja star into the bases of each light bulb. I made each leaf turn downward and then out again as to not look too droopy.




The clay air dried fairly quickly which made it easy to work with. The clay pieces dried in about an hour and are totally removable (incase the hubs thinks I'm crazy and doesn't like it) and easy to rotate/ adjust.

Ta da!




***Just a safety note, do not use the clay near open flames/candelabra chandeliers***