Dollar Tree Amber/Orange Pendant Lights

Let's make three 1970's inspired orange pendant lights using Dollar Tree bowls! When they're turned on they cast a pleasing warm glow across your room.

THE THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

• 6 large clear plastic bowls from Dollar Tree
• 6 small clear decorative bowls from Dollar Tree
• 3 clear plastic shot glasses from Dollar Tree
• Mod Podge - Glossy
• Red, yellow and green food coloring gel
• A sponge brush
• Popsicle stick for mixing Mod Podge
• A nail, metal pliers, a safety glove and fire to heat up a nail to melt through plastic
• Any kind of sturdy wire
• Metal lamp chain from Amazon (at least 4 feet)
• Metal decorative hooks from Amazon (3)
• 3 remote control push lights from Amazon
• A spring drill to drill tiny holes in plastic
• Strong thread
• 9 AAA batteries
• 3 orange Meow Mix wet food bowls
• Electric drill for ceiling hooks
• E6000
• Brass spray paint, whatever brand is fine, I used Rustoleum
• Gold leaf paint
• Paint brush
• Measuring tape to measure where the hooks should go if necessary

After gathering all the supplies you need, start by using an old bowl to pour about half a cup of Glossy Mod Podge into. Then gradually add drops of red and yellow gel food coloring, adding a little bit of green occasionally. You want the color to be a dark shade of Terra Cotta. This is the most important step if you want your lights to dry the right color, so go look at a Terra Cotta plant pot for a color reference please.

Once you've mixed your color thoroughly, use your sponge brush and paint on the inside of the 6 large bowls and 3 of the small decorative bowls. This has to be a thick coat as seen in my picture where I'm using the flash to show you the opaque color. If you hold your bowl up to the light and the Mod Podge looks streaky then don't worry! The finished product isn't going to look that way when the lights are on. Trust the process and carefully make sure you're painting an even and thick coat.

Give the bowls a few days to dry completely and you'll notice that they've become a clear orangey/amber color. On to the next step!

Nextly, use your brass spray paint and paint the outside of 3 small decorative bowls and 3 plastic shot glasses. I stuffed foil in the shot glasses to make them stay put while I spray them. Let those dry for at least an hour and then take a small paint brush that you don't care about ruining and very lightly use gold leaf paint to paint over the details in the decorative bowls that're sticking out. This will make the details more visible and make the bowls look as though they're made of brass but that raised details have been polished over time.

For the shot glasses, use your brush and lightly drag gold leaf paint lines over the shot glasses vertically to give them more detail. Let these bowls and shot glasses dry for at least one whole day.

For the amber plastic bowls:

While your brass pieces are drying, you can work on your orange colored bowls now. Flip over 3 of your large painted orange bowls on a fireproof work surface so that the bottoms of them are facing up. Now put on your safety gloves and glasses and use metal pliers to hold a nail over an open flame for about 30 seconds. Quickly, and very carefully poke the nail through the center of the bottom of 3 of the large bowls until there is a hole and then remove the nail and wait for the nail to cool down before placing it on anything. Now you have 3 holes in the 3 large bowls at the bottom.

Once all of your spray painted bowls are finished drying and the gold leaf paint on them is also dry, flip them all upside down on your work surface and follow the previous step to poke holes through the center bottom of all 6 of them. Once you've finished with that, get your E6000 and work surface ready for some gluing!

Flip the 3 large orange bowls upside down and you want to put E6000 glue on the inside rim of each of the 3 small orange bowls and glue each one on top of each of the large orange bowls. Try to make these as centered as you can. You should have 3 stacks of 2 bowls per stack, this will make up the bottom half of your lamps.

Now for the top half: Flip the 3 large orange bowls upside down with the holes you made facing up. Cut a 10 inch piece of wire and stick it through the hole in the first bowl and use the wire as a guide to line up your brass bowls. Now, put E6000 on the inside rim of your spray painted decorative bowl and slide it over the wire, through the hole you hade made, and press it down on the orange bowl so that it glues evenly and straight. Do this same step for the remaining bowls so that you have 3 piles of stacks that're made of 1 large orange bowl, 1 decorative bow and 1 shot glass glued together, removing the wire after you've glued each piece.

Let everything dry for one day.

The next step is to drill all the holes and cut all the things! Measure how long you want each metal chain to be for each of your 3 lamps and cut the chain to those lengths. I ended up making the middle lamp hang lower than the other two and so I measured accordingly but this is all up to you and the look you want. Set those chains aside and measure where you want your hooks to be on your ceiling. These don't need to be drilled into wood since the lamps aren't very heavy but it's up to you and where you're putting your lamps. I got my gold hooks from Amazon and used a drill and followed the instructions on the package for the hooks in order to drill holes for the anchors and then put on the hooks evenly so there is at least a 6 inch space between each hook, with the center hook being centered to my window. This is up to you!! Follow your hook instructions to do this step.

Next, take the 3 top halves of your lamps that have the spray painted bowls and shot glasses glued to them and measure 3 lengths of wire, bending the end into an eye pin shape around something round, I used a tube of makeup to bend the end into a circle shape. Put the very large eye pin shaped wire through the trios of bowls so the circle is at the top of the shot glass and then bend the remaining wire inside the bowls. Next, grab your spring drill or any drill with a tiny drill bit to drill holes into 2 opposite sides of the rims of the large orange bowls and set aside. These lamp halves are finished and now we have to work on the other 3 halves.

Take your other 3 stacks of orange bowls and use your drill to drill holes in the rims of the large orange bowls that make up the bottom halves of your lamps. Put the lamps together and use your lamp top halves as a guide for where the holes should be on the bottom orange halves of the lamps.

Next, take your remote control push lights that you got from Amazon or where ever you bought them and put AAA batteries in 3 of the lights, using the remote control to make sure they work. Then use the foam stickers they came with and stick them to the center insides of the bottom halves of your lamps. If you place the top halves on top of these lights, you'll notice that your amber colored coat of Mod Podge looks streaky and not good..this is where the orange Meow Mix wet food bowls come in handy!!

If you don't have a cat or don't buy these, you can probably lay orange tissue paper over the push lights. The point of this is to diffuse the harsh light and make it more orange and if you put the top half back on the bottom half after you've done this, you'll notice what I mean. The Mod Podge doesn't look streaky anymore and now it looks like the warm colored amber you're wanting them to be. The Meow Mix bowls can just rest on these push lights, don't glue them down or you can't change the batteries of the lights in the future.

After doing this step to all 3 bottom halves, place their corresponding top halves on top and tie both sides of the bowls together using thread that you've put through each of the tiny holes you drilled. I did this so that I could cut the thread in the future and be able to change the batteries out of the lights if I need to. Then you would just have to retie the threads after and hang them back up.

Lastly, and finally, attach the metal chains to the tops of the lamps and hang them up on your hooks that're in your ceiling and use your remote control to turn your lights on and you're done!! This project seems hard but it isn't as hard as you'd think after seeing how long my instructions are. You basically stack all the bowls to create lamp shapes and the result are these beautiful warm glowing orange lamps that are inspired by the 1970's. I hope you enjoy my project and try it for yourself!