Custom dollhouse lights

[wormwoodz]

Lovelly!! Really great find on those jewellery bits, love seeing the light shine through the patterns :)

[Guest]

I found these wire balls at the Australian version of the dollar store last night. 

I thought of you immediately Miranda. I think you could spray these a dark copper colour and they would make a cool light fixture. The smaller ones could be the size of pendants & the larger ones would make a big statement chandelier... I might have to try this out for fun. :D

I don't know if you have "krafty corner" stuff in your dollar stores in the USA but it's worth a try.

[Debsrand56]

Darn!  I can't find these in the U.S.  I know this post was meant for Miranda, but I really wanted to make a fixture similar to this http://www.1800lighting.com/Maxim-Lighting/Sputnik/item.cfm?itemsku=25130BR for the Merrimack (one central light, though; I don't think I could wire all the little bulbs), and these would be perfect, assuming the small ones are small enough.  Now I'm on a mission. :-)  (By the way, we have this light in our real-life house, and it is gorgeous.)

[SewMini]

OMG I just had an epiphany. What about using white wire hanger wire to make this? DH has about a million of them up in the closet. I bet the gauge would be just right.

[KathieB]

14 minutes ago, SewMini said:

OMG I just had an epiphany. What about using white wire hanger wire to make this? DH has about a million of them up in the closet. I bet the gauge would be just right.

The hanger wire might be a bit stiff without a sturdy jig. What about green or white florist wire? It would be easier to work with and is paper-wrapped -- so would take paint readily -- and comes in several gauges.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Debsrand56 said:

Darn!  I can't find these in the U.S.  I know this post was meant for Miranda, but I really wanted to make a fixture similar to this http://www.1800lighting.com/Maxim-Lighting/Sputnik/item.cfm?itemsku=25130BR for the Merrimack (one central light, though; I don't think I could wire all the little bulbs), and these would be perfect, assuming the small ones are small enough.  Now I'm on a mission. :-)  (By the way, we have this light in our real-life house, and it is gorgeous.)

I actually don't think these would be hard to make Deborah and they'd probably be sturdier. They are just super fine wire (quite flimsy, you can bend them out of shape VERY easily... had a mishap with one, but that's another story..  ) wound in a random ball. For the light, I was thinking about putting a smaller dollhouse chandelier inside of it painted dark copper to simulate the light Miranda posted above.

I'd be happy to mail you some but I fear they wouldn't make the trip very well, and may end up smooshed flat. 

[Debsrand56]

28 minutes ago, Samusa said:

I actually don't think these would be hard to make Deborah and they'd probably be sturdier. They are just super fine wire (quite flimsy, you can bend them out of shape VERY easily... had a mishap with one, but that's another story..  ) wound in a random ball. For the light, I was thinking about putting a smaller dollhouse chandelier inside of it painted dark copper to simulate the light Miranda posted above.

I'd be happy to mail you some but I fear they wouldn't make the trip very well, and may end up smooshed flat.

Thanks for the offer, but I think you're right.    I may just give this a try.  I have some very fine wire to play with.  I'm doing this in half scale, so I don't think I can put a small chandelier inside, but that's a great idea.

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Debsrand56 said:

Thanks for the offer, but I think you're right.    I may just give this a try.  I have some very fine wire to play with.  I'm doing this in half scale, so I don't think I can put a small chandelier inside, but that's a great idea.

Mmmm.. half scale.. yikes!

If you found something cylindrical in the right diameter to get two separate circles going , (I'm thinking travel size hairspray lid..random... lol) then super glue them together perpendicular to each other to for a "+" where they meet. You could then work all other random circles of this template. Or if you wanted a more structured look you could just keep making circles and glue them in at even intervals to form a vertical lined ball.

Nice light fixture by the way. :)

[wormwoodz]

43 minutes ago, Debsrand56 said:

Thanks for the offer, but I think you're right.    I may just give this a try.  I have some very fine wire to play with.  I'm doing this in half scale, so I don't think I can put a small chandelier inside, but that's a great idea.

You could try bending the wire into circles, then soldering them together in the shape of that chandelier you linked. Or if you can find cheap thin metal bangles that could work too. For the lights I usually buy bulbs already wired like these, if you want to use more than one bulb try to run them through a plastic tube (safer for the wires, just paint it the same color as the metal).

[Debsrand56]

21 minutes ago, Samusa said:

If you found something cylindrical in the right diameter to get two separate circles going , (I'm thinking travel size hairspray lid..random... lol) then super glue them together perpendicular to each other to for a "+" where they meet.

I think it's worth a try.  I'm not the best at bending wire, but the wire is pretty fine, so I may have success.  Good idea on the travel hairspray lid as a template.

2 minutes ago, wormwoodz said:

You could try bending the wire into circles, then soldering them together in the shape of that chandelier you linked. Or if you can find cheap thin metal bangles that could work too. For the lights I usually buy bulbs already wired like these,

Thanks for the link on the lights.  I was looking at my options on Oakridge Hobbies, and they had some like these, so I think that's what I'll try.  I do have some narrow tubing/conduit to thread the wires through.  If this works, I'll post pictures.  :-)

[tlbradwisch]

it reminds me of a project we did with the kids where we blew up a balloon took yarn soaked in white glue wrapped it around the balloon in odd patters and when the glue dried pop the balloon and it was in the shape  maybe find tiny balloons if thats a possibility  

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Debsrand56 said:

I think it's worth a try.  I'm not the best at bending wire, but the wire is pretty fine, so I may have success.  Good idea on the travel hairspray lid as a template.

I'm not great at it either. But I saw a tutorial once and it suggested using something to bend the wire around... I tried it and you get a much smoother finish than trying to do it freehand. 

And yes, please post pics of your experiments.
 

[SewMini]

Here's a tutorial on how to make a wire ball. Looks pretty easy though you'll need a REALLY small balloon.

http://www.our-everyday-art.com/2012/12/wire-and-bead-ornaments.html

I also found this flat aluminum wire on Joann's site

http://www.joann.com/silver-flat-aluminum-wire-3-yards/11482031.html#q=floral%2Bwire&prefn1=prod_type&sz=36&start=73&prefv1=Product

I bet you could get a 5 pack of those GOR lights and bundle them together pretty easily with electrical tape or a flexible tubing. Maybe you could even get a thin guague wire, taple each light line to that and THEN bundle them together. That way you can move the tips around. After that it would just be a matter of setting it into the wire ball and figuring out how to hang it.

[Debsrand56]

3 minutes ago, tlbradwisch said:

it reminds me of a project we did with the kids where we blew up a balloon took yarn soaked in white glue wrapped it around the balloon in odd patters and when the glue dried pop the balloon and it was in the shape  maybe find tiny balloons if thats a possibility  

You know what?  I thought of that, too.  The only thing is, I'm not sure there are balloons that tiny! I even considered a styrofoam ball or a loose ball of aluminum foil, that could be removed when everything dries.  I may keep this as a back-up plan, if bending the wire doesn't work.

[SewMini]

OOH! you know what would be small enough? Water balloon balloons. Those things are TINY.  Or what about balled up toilet paper? When you're done wrapping you can run it under water and the toilet paper would probably disintegrate enough to pull it out without mucking it up too much.

[Debsrand56]

2 minutes ago, SewMini said:

Here's a tutorial on how to make a wire ball. Looks pretty easy though you'll need a REALLY small balloon.

Thanks for the links!  Maybe I could use a styrofoam ball and try to hack it out of the center when done.  

 

3 minutes ago, SewMini said:

I bet you could get a 5 pack of those GOR lights and bundle them together pretty easily with electrical tape or a flexible tubing.

Ooh, that's a good idea! Now I'm off to shop.

[Debsrand56]

2 minutes ago, SewMini said:

OOH! you know what would be small enough? Water balloon balloons. Those things are TINY.  Or what about balled up toilet paper? When you're done wrapping you can run it under water and the toilet paper would probably disintegrate enough to pull it out without mucking it up too much.

Thank you!  What great ideas!  I think the balled up toilet paper could work really well.  

[Guest]

All great ideas ladies... I think I see custom modern lighting in my future. :D
 

[havanaholly]

Coat hanger wire is too thick for scale, the florist wire is a better idea.  After you've wrapped your styrofoam ball you can melt it with nail polish remover/ acetone (I'd do this outside).

[Guest]

So I bought these cheap fixtures from china a while ago because I liked the shape.

Today, after reading through this topic I got inspired to spray paint them with Rustoleum Satin Nickel.

I wanted to recreate a "close enough" version of this

So here's how they look so far....

 

Makeshift spray booth..    And yes... I need to mow my lawn... but I have more important mini things to do... 

Anyhoo.. I think they are going to be fine. 

[SewMini]

Ooooooooh! I love that. Those look great in a silver. I wonder if you can do a quick dry brush with some black just to give them a little more depth.

I tried making one of the wire ball chandeliers with a wire hanger and even though I think the gauge would have been ok it was just SO hard to manipulate. I admittedly gave up. But then I remembered I had some heavier gauge jewelry wire in my stash so I tried making one with that. I REALLY liked that double wire ball one that was posted earlier so I decided to give that style a go. I basically made the two balls the same way you would a yarn pom pom where I wrapped it around a turkey baster (because it has different diameters). I did one large ball and one small ball then just fed a bare bulb through the two balls and wired it in place. It still needs a bit of finessing but I like it and it was sooooooo easy to do. I may be hooked on making my own lights lol.

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, SewMini said:

Ooooooooh! I love that. Those look great in a silver. I wonder if you can do a quick dry brush with some black just to give them a little more depth.

I tried making one of the wire ball chandeliers with a wire hanger and even though I think the gauge would have been ok it was just SO hard to manipulate. I admittedly gave up. But then I remembered I had some heavier gauge jewelry wire in my stash so I tried making one with that. I REALLY liked that double wire ball one that was posted earlier so I decided to give that style a go. I basically made the two balls the same way you would a yarn pom pom where I wrapped it around a turkey baster (because it has different diameters). I did one large ball and one small ball then just fed a bare bulb through the two balls and wired it in place. It still needs a bit of finessing but I like it and it was sooooooo easy to do. I may be hooked on making my own lights lol.

Yes, definitely need to dry brush them with something for depth. I was surprised at how easy they were to spray. 

Your light is just darling when lit!  I wonder if you could thread a piece of wire along the light wiring from the opening of the big ball to the one inside to help it sit more toward the middle... hmmm.. not explaining well.. Like, kind of glue the light wiring to a piece of jewelry wire from top of big ball to top of little ball...  ... haha... well you know what I mean..

This light making is so much fun! :D
 

[Debsrand56]

Samantha---  Nice job on the fixtures.  I have seen similar fixtures in half scale, and never thought of painting them silver.

Miranda--  Very cool, especially when it's lit!

[SewMini]

Ha I totally know what you mean. The design definitely needs finessing and I agree it will need something in the middle to keep it in place. I'll probably make another one because I'm going for more of a silver, dark brown look than gold though I could just paint this one. I mostly  just wanted to see if I could make one relatively easily. Though, I really like that chicken wire chandelier that I posted in my original post. I NEED it! Not sure how to make that one happen in 1/12 scale.

ETA: OMG look at what I just found! Miniature chicken wire in "rusty." It's a sign!

https://www.amazon.com/Darice-6614-108-Chicken-Ribbon-Craftwork/dp/B00MA6YC42/ref=pd_sim_201_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00MA6YC42&pd_rd_r=WCX6DP939CM3GR9RXVKT&pd_rd_w=Fnk04&pd_rd_wg=dYNj7&psc=1&refRID=WCX6DP939CM3GR9RXVKT

[Debsrand56]

5 hours ago, havanaholly said:

Coat hanger wire is too thick for scale, the florist wire is a better idea.  After you've wrapped your styrofoam ball you can melt it with nail polish remover/ acetone (I'd do this outside).

Great tip, Holly!   (And, yes, I would definitely do that outside.)