Wine Glass Chandelier

Hi all. Welcome to my instructable for our wine glass chandelier! The whole idea for this project came from the 40 antique gold rimmed stemware glasses I had from my great grandparents. They are all random shapes and sizes, and we have a ton of other antique stemware, so rather than go to waste, I decided to use for this project. My thought was to place the bulbs behind the glasses so that the light will refract through them onto the walls.

For the main body of the fixture, I decided to make a 29" diameter ring out of plywood. I glued up a 3/4" sheet to 1.5", then used a router jig and straight router bit to first cut the outer edge to 29" diameter, then cut the inner edge to 27" diameter, leaving a 1" wide ring. This is the first time I used a jig like this, and it came out great!

I then laid out all of the glasses, and cut the bases off from the stem using a copper pipe cutter. This was very simple and worked very well. I then drilled holes into the wood for each stem and arranged the glasses with varying heights. I also drilled holes for the chain supports and socket arms.

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of this step. I removed all of the glasses, and set aside. I then routed a channel using a rabbet bit around the outer edge of the ring. I threaded a wire through each of the socks arm holes, and then soldered these to another wire running around the entire ring. The main wire then exited through the top surface of the ring. I then filled the channel with wood filler, and sanded all surfaces.

I applied brass banding around the outer and inner edges of the ring with tiny nails and epoxy. I then used this amazing product Rub n Buff to add an antique finish to the whole ring. I layered several different colors to achieve the final finish. I then wired all of the socket arms and sockets. Finally, I attached the chain hangers to the upper surface.

Olivia and I then hung the chandelier, and wired to to the ceiling recepticle. I then glued each glass into the respective hole.

All in all, we are thrilled how it turned out. I'm sure my grandparents would have loved to see their parents' glasses being put to good use. The girls seem to love it too!