Way back around Christmas time I had been seeing some chandeliers made of wax paper circles in the likeness of capiz shells around various blogs. I loved the look and wondered what it would be like to make a real capiz shell chandelier. Then while browsing around a local decor store I found a capiz shell wind chime that was broken. They ended up giving it to me at half off (score!) so I took it home with plans of remaking it.
I started out by making two new circles with piano wire (putting two circles together to make it double thickness), wrapping it with a very fine gauge wire, then wrapping it entirely with brown floral tape.
Then I cut four equal lengths of jewelry chain, wrapped it around the wire circle and used a thick gauge jump ring to secure it.
I cut four more lengths and gathered them at the top with a metal ring for hanging. I cut off the strings of capiz shells and, hanging it from the light in our dining room, started tying them on the new frame.
After much cutting and tying this is the result...
The chandelier is now for sale in my "Cat on a Limb Accessoriz" Etsy shop. (See my sidebar) I had some leftover capiz shells that I will be listing for sale as well.
Have any of you done any capiz shell or wax paper "shell" projects?
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