Brass chandelier

The past few days I have been doing some boring things, like sanding stairs railings, and some more creative things, like wallpapering rear interior walls, which still isn't much to show. So today, as possibly the last project of the year, I made something that I had been planning for a very long time. More than a year ago I bought this part of an old petroleum lamp at a car boot sale:

 

I knew that it would make an excellent chandelier. I had a similar one in my old Victorian house (it will now move to Womble Hall).

I didn't take step-by-step pictures because it was just a hugely tedious job of fixing the chains, that, by the way, came from one of my treasure chests. I took a shortcut and used thin metal thread (of the kind you find on wine bottles) which I then secured on the inside with a plastic bead. I cannot fix the chandelier even temporarily in a room because it is heavy, and neither tack nor tape would hold. So here I just attached it at the edge. It will not be in this room, but at least you can see what it is going to look like.

It will eventually be in the grand hall, but, again, I cannot fix it yet, so in this picture I am holding it with my left hand, trying to take a picture with my right hand. Anyone who has tried this knows it is impossible. This is the best I can do.

 

The lights are just fixed with tape, but I will figure out how to make it better. They do look much better in reality than in a picture. This is a battery-powered set of warm lights. You can see the cord hanging down, but when I do it properly it will go through the ceiling, and the power switch will be on the back of the house.

I have a magnificent ceiling rose to go with the chandelier, a large ornate brooch. It will probably be some months before I can put it up since there is still so much preliminary work to do on the house. I haven't even painted the ceilings yet!