My Finished DIY Pendant Light ..... (Via Made By Girl)

Hope everyone had a great long Holiday weekend. OMG. Doesn't it seem to pass by so quickly??!  So, last week I posted here about my DIY random pendant for my home. It took a few days, but we finally finished it this weekend. Overall, I'm pretty HAPPY with how it turned out! However, I have to admit, the only 2 things I DIDN'T ENJOY about this project were: 

1. It was time consuming.

2. Some of the wallpaper paste we used dried between the yarn, and we had to remove as much as we could little by little with a toothbrush.

I basically sat there with a TOOTHBRUSH (after we deflated & removed the exercise ball) & brushed some of the paste off! Most of it DID come off, but if you get real close you can STILL see some of the paste. Oh well.... it'll be hanging high enough that it shouldn't be a BIG deal + for only $50 total spent, I'm not going to complain. 

(click on pic for larger images)

We actually decided to bring an ELECTRICIAN (which I recommend you do) in to make the sockets for us (we got 2 made) and he only charged us $15 each! We'll also be calling on him when we decide to hang them up. (The pendant is currently hanging in my guest bedroom so the dogs won't touch it).

If you LOOK CLOSELY, you can also see that we used a 10" piece of curtain rod (painted it white), threaded the wire through the CURTAIN ROD (giving it a cleaner appearance). We placed one canopy inside & another on top and bolted them together, giving it a sleeker look while stabilizing the bulb. 

We'll definitely be making another one, smaller than this one...but next time we're going to try using fabric stiffener & see if it still shows up when dry. Oh & by the way, the YARN WE USED was white, but with the light switched on, it appears a tan color in the photos.

Let me know what you think so far. Will you be making one for your home?  

 

images by jen ramos

My DIY Pendant Light in Progress..... (Via Made By Girl)

I'm sure many of you have seen the Moooi Random Pendant light....well we've also seen how pricey it can be, especially if you want two of the medium sized ones. We're talking close to $2000!! So, I figured why not dig up a DIY online a take a shot at making one...why not right?!? Well, my guy was up for the challenge and that's what we did last night. 


It's still drying, SO HOPEFULLY it will dry nicely. We first tested on 2 small ones, with two different yarns and 2 different glues.....then we chose the best one and did the BIG one. Crossing my fingers!!

the one above is NOT my lamp! 

below is a peek at our DIY in progress

How we made the ball :

• blow up the exercise ball 
• mark a 6-7 inch circle off-center (this is for your hand so you can change the bulb)
• plastic on the floor (it will get real messy)
• wear gloves (it will get messy, I mean it)
• rub Vaseline all over the exercise ball (this prevents the yarn from sticking to the surface once the glue is applied)
• put wallpaper paste into a large bowl
• unravel the ball of yarn (we used 300 yards for a 31" ball) dip it into the paste & saturate it completely
• begin wrapping the saturated yarn around the ball randomly covering as much of the open space as possible without covering the drawn circle
• once the ball is all wrapped in yarn, let it dry about 24 hours (we placed ours on top of a cardboard box for stability)
• once dry, deflate ball carefully & pull it through the circle opening (the same opening used to change the bulb) very carefully.

Electricals:

A bit too long for this post, but you can email me jen (at) madebygirl.com for the instructions & I'll send them to you.