If you were creating a chandelier from scratch...

[BriJohn]

I think one of the reasons I fell in love with dollhouses a year ago was the miniature chandeliers. I want to create my own. I have all the tools I need. I have the socket bulbs, the hollow brass tubing (all cut and shaped into arms), I have the solder gun and solder, I have all the little brass do dads and findings, the crystals, and I even bought a electroplating gold kit so all the parts would match (although I may like the brass looking vintage, will play and see, still a fun tool to have I think). Anyway. It's down to the wire It's time to do this.

I need advice on connecting all those wires - I've got six candle sockets, so twelve wires. Now dollhouse wiring isn't like in real life where you have to figure out what's hot and what's neutral, right, I feel so silly asking. I'm thinking I'll take one of each of the wires from each socket, strip it, and solder them together. Then I'd do that for the remaining 6, right? Then one of those bundles gets soldered to one separated and stripped wire from the hardwire wire (that's running in the dollhouse to the fixture) and then the other soldered bundle gets wired to the other hardwire wire. Does that cover it? I know I'm probably making this too hard. 

Have you ever made your own chandelier? How did it work out and do you have any extra tips?

[BriJohn]

Here's the candle sockets if it helps clarify:

Candle sockets

[Sable]

I had a devil of a time inserting the wires into the bent copper tubing. The wire casing kept getting stripped.   So then I decided to insert the wire first, then bend the tubing. It was a nightmare for me. I hope you have better success.  My mess is currently in a box.

[BriJohn]

Sable, I was afraid of that too and I was kind of amazed that when I fed my wire through the tubes it worked. Mine aren't very curvy though, like a j shape. I think had they been any curvier it wouldn't have worked. That was just a few test runs, pulled it all back out but feel good I can get it to work. I found the inspiration I want to try first here on these galleries and she had 6 J shapes joined together - my plan is to solder mine at the top. I've never actually soldered anything but.....

[Soapz]

Briana, I'm in the same boat and have to admit I benched the project for now. I moved on to other ceiling lights which is/was very rewarding because they worked. Soldering is not easy. When you solder the arms of the chandelier to the center base and the wire for the bulbs is already in the arms, you need to make sure you're not melting the coating of the wires - when that happens you will need to start all over again... 

Let us know how it is going for you. I made a blog entry for the first lamp I built - just in case anyone has a better/easier/more efficient way of doing things. You might want to think about doing that too - we have some crafty people here that might be able to offer advice if you run into problems.

[BriJohn]

I thought I'd solder my 6 J's together around a straight brass tube, shorter, that would be hid in the middle. Then I'd run my wires through each one and begin the soldering process on the wires and that would be hidden on top of the J's with beadwork - gold shaped beads. Here's my inspiration:

[BriJohn]

On another note, the gold electroplating kit did;t work on my brass do dads. They must have not been solid brass, a mixture of different metals I suppose and I thought that might happen. The electroplate just made them dull and sort of copper colored. I was using it right though because it did gold plate my quarter! It's not a deal breaker though because the brass findings have a nice vintage patina and that's okay with me too. I know the pro mini chandelier makers plate their parts though, there's a lady on eBay who plates all her pieces, maybe she's using a more expensive kit, I dunno. Just thought I'd share my experience. Or maybe I should've bought the brass plating kit....

[BriJohn]

Chris, have you seen this youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QHlDITDHfk

This one seems very easy to do with fabulous results. I'll definitely be making this kind too. 

I went to look at your blog but the images aren't there for me : ( 

[Soapz]

The photos are also in my album:

I have no idea where the pictures in the blog disappeared to.....

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=view&id=108863

[Gee]

i was wondering... instead of soldering the tubes together, can't you glue them together with jewelry glue? or would the tubes be too heavy for that

[BriJohn]

Gerda, I think I was thinking of solder because I wanted to plate the arms. But the plating isn't looking right so yeah, I guess glue would work just fine. I told ya I was making this hard, ha.  But it seems to me the wires would need to be soldered together anyway though so if you could do the solder it might be stronger? It doesn't matter I'm sure. The tubes I have are called 1/16 and I got the next size up too but I'm able to thread the smaller tubes so that's what I'm playing with. They are very light.

Chris, that was such a cool fixture. Very creative and pretty!

[BriJohn]

So here's what I have so far! The top is not done. I think I may need to re-do the wiring. This took a lot of sweat and tears, ha, sort of. Man this is trying my patience. I burned up a set or two of candle wires, ugh. The hardest part so far has definitely been the wiring. Did learn you can't solder brass to brass without a little torch and acid flux so that's out. I did have to use glue on the brass tubes and then I tied a golden wire around the top for extra stability and it's pretty strong. The plan is to have a filigree that comes down over with dangles so that is covered. Progress though....

[sparklepuppies]

Oh my goodness, that's beautiful. I'm so jealous.

Can you show a picture of what do-dads you used for the different parts?

[Selkie]

Lovely.

[Sable]

Great job, wanna fix mine?

[BriJohn]

Sure Tracy. Here is what's used so far:

Bead caps from Etsy

Brass jump rings 5mm from same Etsy seller (these are for attaching larger crystals to drop like in the inspiration shot from Jennifer)

6mm bead caps

Swarovski 6mm rhinestone rondelles

4mm and 2.5mm swarovski bicone beads as well as twisted bugle beads strung on 24 gauge wire

1/16 brass tubing from Hobby Lobby (I also picked up 1/8 I think it was in case the 1/16 was too small to thread which I think would also look fine but I got the 1/16 to work). Cutting the brass and keeping the hole from crunching is tricky. I used my wire cutters to go around and around the cut applying even pressure until it clipped off. Later I bought the tube cutter at Hobby Lobby, found by the tubing, even though reviews online says it won't really cut 1/16. One man said he took the face off and sanded it down and then it would cut 1/16. 

candle sockets linked above and buy extra! I seriously melted a set and even a candle socket itself.

I think I need to re-do my wires and attempt to stagger the inflow and the outflow splices because if they touch inside the chandelier you'll short circuit it out, I think is what you call it. I have these tiny shrink tubes from Cir-Kit but once you've got all those wires together, the splice gets fat and I was still planning on soldering my splice, so the clear shrink tubes are too small for me I'm afraid. I have some thicker black shrink tube at another location but I'm thinking it might be too big. So I haven't won the battle yet. 

Thank you Selkie, I just hope I can get it finished properly. Sable, haaaaa, I can see why Jennifer said she'd never make another like this again! Only I do need to make another for my daughter's house maybe with purple 4mm crystals on the bottom and purple drops. And then maybe a dark version in my son's future house - maybe gunmetal would be cool. 

Edited September 19, 2015 by BriJohn
wrong mm size listed

[stickyfingers]

That looks really nice! And it sounds like a LOT of work.

[sparklepuppies]

Awesome, thank you for the list!

[KathieB]

It is beautiful, Briana! As for the problem with the shrink tubes, have you considered using the sort of rubbery black electricians tape? It is quite thin and insulates very well. You can snip off bits to suit the size needed for a particular joint.

[BriJohn]

Kathie, you just made me remember seeing liquid electrician's tape on someone's blog, and you paint it on. That might be easier. Or maybe not! At least I do have electrician's tape here at home. 

[Gee]

very well done so far, it looks real good!

[MiniCrazy]

That is very Beautiful! I'm inspired to try something now.

[cloudbound]

Briana,

  Bluebear was responding to my question about wiring a 4-arm chandelier for my dollhouse and told me to take a look at what you were doing with your chandelier.  I saw from the photo you had that you DID get the lights to go on but the photo only shows the fixture with wires coming out the top of each tube.  It didn't show where/how you connected all those wires together.  I read what you wrote about not really needing to pay attention to the 'poles' of the wires (since our dollhouse wiring doesn't come with color-coded wires like in full-sized chandeliers).  And from what I read you just gathered one side of the wires from each of your lights and bunched them together, soldered them together, then soldered one of the two lines to it from the plug wire.  Then you repeated it with the other wires from all the lights.  Did I get that right? 

  I went crazy today looking for hours online to see if there was any sort of tutorial to show how to join the wires in a dollhouse chandelier and I couldn't even find ONE.  Well, I did find a few showing you how to make a one-light chandelier but they didn't help with my question. 

  I am making a wood 4-arm chandelier and happily I am mounting each arm into a good-sized center (also wood that will be empty inside so it should be easy to hide wiring inside, and then have just the one wire coming out the top to go into the ceiling connection).  So I'm hoping I'm understanding you right.  It sounds fairly easy...

Pat

[cloudbound]

I decided to try wiring four of the prewired 'grain of wheat' bulbs I had on hand into my 4-arm hanging fixture (since my flame tip bulbs with sockets and wires have not arrived yet).  I wanted to use the flame tips with sockets so the lights could easily be changed if one burns out.  And I may go ahead and switch it all out since I didn't glue on the last side piece in the center - its just shoved into place for now.  But the four grain of wheat bulbs seem to be providing plenty of light. 

  I'm pleased with how the fixture turned out - except I wish I had a really nice wood to build it out of.  I'm just using basswood because... that is what I HAVE.  This is almost identical to the one we had back in the 70's in our dining room and I was trying to make something using wood for the rustic dollhouse I'll be working on.

  So here it is lit. 

[cloudbound]

  Oops - hit the wrong button.  Here're some photos of the light fixture.    I'm not sure yet whether it will be hanging on a chain or if I will 'mount' it using a wood base I made.  It will all depend on what the room it will go in is like...