Once you start drilling through glass, it apparently gets pretty addictive. Because here I am back at it again. I spent so much time in thrift stores looking for glass dishes for the flowers, that I couldn’t stop collecting when I found a deal I couldn’t pass up. So I wound up with a whole bunch of these tealights I knew I had to do something with. Tealights and drilling, it had to end up with a chandelier.
First you’ll need to drill a hole through all your dishes so you can hang them together. We’ve covered this a whole bunch lately, so I’m going to be brief. You need a drill bit made for glass, a tub of cool water to reduce friction and prevent cracking, and a towel to hold the dish in place. Drill with slow and steady pressure.
Maybe you have better aim than I do and will put a hole through the dead center, but if you don’t, it’s far from the end of the world. It will just make your dishes hang quirkily and give your chandelier some character.
To hang the dishes together, you need some chain and some wire. I got both at the hardware store because you’ll need it to be strong enough to carry the weight of the dishes. The best wire I’ve found for this is the kind they use for fencing, which you can find in spools next to the rolls of chain link. Cut a piece of wire around 2 inches long and use pliers to roll one end into a loop. Connect that loop to a piece of the chain.
Feed the straight side of the wire through the dish and then roll that end into another loop. Depending on how you want your chandelier to look this loop can be the end point that holds the dish in place, or you can attach another piece of chain onto that loop and keep it going.
You’ll also need something to hang the chains from. I found this piece at my thrift store. It started as a decorative candle holder, but I snipped off the candle parts and it became just a decorative piece of wrought iron. I used the same wire with eye loops to connect the chain on to it, and then added three more chains arranged in a triangle to hang the whole piece from. Loop one end to the iron piece, and one end to the chain, just like all the others. If you don’t luck into an iron piece, you can use just about anything. I’ve seen fancy shops use auto parts, baskets, pieces of fence, anything you can hang up and wrap a wire around.
Obviously this chandelier doesn’t produce light, but I don’t need it to. I need it to provide some glamour to my outdoor life. I’ve developed an appreciation for the outdoors, but everything is better with a little glamour.
