diy project: vintage-style brass pendant lamp

After seeing this perforated brass pendant lamp by Holly Rose, I decided I must take a class in metalsmithing — it seems so cool! I’ve just come around to brass recently, and now I love it! Holly has given simple brass sheets a whole new look by cutting out a fun polka dot pattern and turning them into a double-tiered chandelier for her hallway. You may remember Holly’s love of gilded home decor from her awesome “carmageddon-inspired” bedroom wall DIY we posted a while back. She’s clearly on a roll with the gold, and I like where it’s going. Thanks for sharing, Holly! — Kate

Read the full how-to after the jump!

Materials

• six metal sheets in brass (or metal of your choice)
• pendant lamp kit (mine is from Amazon)
• circle template (they sell these at architecture/art supply stores, or you can trace a small circular object)
• marker
• disc cutter and hammer (available here or at specialty hardware stores)
• gold paint/spray paint (for the light fixture)
• 10-gauge soft brass wire
• brass rivets

Instructions

1. Take the sheets of brass and use a circle template to draw the design on the first piece.

2. Use a disc cutter equal to or slightly larger than the diameter of your circle template and a hammer to cut the holes in the brass sheets. You may be able to do this with a good hole puncher, as the brass was pretty thin and easy to work with.

3. Using the first sheet with the punched holes as a template, trace the same design on all the others and repeat the hole-punching process.

4. Line up the sheets where they will overlap a bit (to form one longer sheet), and mark where you will drill holes to attach them to each other using rivets. I used 4 brass sheets for the top shade and 2 for the bottom shade.

5. Paint the light bulb cover to match the brass finish (gold will work fine).

6. To attach the smaller shade to the larger, drill 4 matching holes in the top of the bottom piece and the bottom of the top piece in order to thread a 10-gauge straight piece of brass wire through each side. I also soldered 3 spokes (cut from the same 10-gauge wire) to a circle of brass in order to attach the top piece to the pendant holder, but if you can’t solder, you can probably achieve the same look by bending wire spokes around a circle of brass without the soldering.

7. Screw the pendant fixture in place to secure the brass structure to the light fixture.

8. You’re done — the piece is ready to hang! The great thing about these materials is that they are lightweight and easy to manipulate to get the balance right on your ceiling.

via designsponge.com