A Candelabra chandelier is amazingly easy to make yourself. All you need to create your very own candelabra chandelier is craft wire, beads and candle glass holders. Create your candelabra chandelier as a centerpiece for your dining room table or living room coffee table. Or create instead, a hanging candelabra chandelier over your bed or bath. Your candelabra can be in any color or size you wish. It’s up to you. So let’s get started.
DIY Candelabra Chandelier
The Beads
The best part of making your chandelier is that the color and size will be entirely up to you. For a large, hanging candelabra chandelier, you will need around 500 beads. For a smaller, centerpiece candelabra, 250 beads are enough.
Visit your local craft store and select your beads. Adhere to one color group with little variation, as Victorian ornaments are simple in hues. Adhere, also, to one texture for the same reason. Opaque or dark glass or plastic beads will work best, as you do not want your copper craft wire to show through the beads. Finally, choose only two shapes of beads: large ones that will make up 40% of your candelabra chandelier, and small ones that will make up the rest.
Craft Wire
How big you wish your candelabra chandelier to be is entirely up to you. Your candelabra will have five arms. Therefore cut five lengths of copper craft wire. Take into account that each length should consist of the length of your candelabra chandelier-times two. The second half will curve to form each candle holder.
Assembly, Part I
Hold the five lengths of copper wire together. Connect them a third way down by looping a small piece of copper wire around all 5. Next, hold the top and bottom and push the wires toward each other. The five wires will bend. Now curve them outwardly into beautiful, symmetrical curves, forming an invisible bubble between them.
Start beading the five curved wires, making sure to repeat the pattern exactly everywhere. Start with a big bead and follow with six small beads, then again. Three inches from the top, loop a copper wire to connect the five wires and finish the top by tying a wire knot over the last beads.
Assembly, Part II
Curve each of the five wires out in a large outward loop, followed by a smaller inward loop in the opposite direction (creating an S shape). Start beading the wires again following the same pattern. Finish each end by tying a wire knot to keep the last bead in place. Complete your chandelier by twirling each beaded wire around a small glass candle holder, finishing off with the end of the wire coming under the glass for support.
Ornament
Add strings of beads to ornament your candelabra chandelier. Beads drooping beneath each glass holder are traditional Victorian motifs. Simply twirl the end of a copper wire anywhere between two beads on your candelabra, to begin a new string of dangling beads.
Choose long, elegant candles, preferably in white, to complete the antique feel of your candelabra chandelier. And if you are hanging your candelabra, make sure to use garden toggle hooks for extra safety.
