Made from mouth-blown crystal glass with halogen lighting, this striking design is suitable for public spaces and more exclusive domestic interiors.
Kumulus consists of more than fifty individual glass pieces, in the form of trumpet-shaped flowers and spiked baubles, with an overall diameter of 1.2 metres. The design can be customised to suit larger or smaller spaces.
Surrounded by hundreds of cell phones? Typically, that would be anyone’s worst nightmare. But at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, it’s called art. The exhibit Cell Phone: Art and the Mobile Phone runs until April 22.
This is the Video Lustre by Beatrice Valentine Amrhein.
Amrhein’s typical medium is painting, but the cell phone attracted her as a centerpiece for the sensory impact it has on our bodies. The chandelier consists of 27 cell phones that are braided together in charger cables, each playing a network of interrelated short videos.
Via Wired News.
1. Crystal needs cleaning when it appears dusty or dull. Just look at your chandelier frequently, and you’ll know when to do the cleaning.
2. Every time you dust your house, take the dust from your chandelier using antistatic dust brush.
3. While dusting keep in mind that crystal pendants shouldn’t beat each other – it may create invisible cracks and eventually spoil the clear structure of the crystal.
4. If you have a modern crystal chandelier you can clean it without detaching the pendants from the frame. The experts from world famous company “Schonbek” suggest: “while handling pendants, use white cotton gloves. Prepare a solution of one part isopropyl alcohol and three parts distilled water. Put it in a spray bottle. Put on your cotton gloves. Spray one glove with the solution. The other glove should be kept dry. Caress the crystal with the damp glove and wipe it immediately with the dry one”.
5. Do not use packaged cleaning fluids, even if they claim to be for crystal. They may contain ammonia or other chemicals that will eventually degrade the frame finish. Specialized lighting stores can offer you to buy cleaning solutions produced by chandelier manufactures specifically for lighting fixtures cleaning. You can use them following the instructions on the package. Keep reading →
Now, you have to choose which chandelier will be the right one for you. It can be a crystal, rustic, contemporary and so on. There are a lot of different chandeliers, there are chandeliers that are expensive and there affordable ones. It really depends on the styles, on the materials use, on the designs and the like.
There are affordable chandeliers out there that you can shop for your home. But now, do you have in mind the right chandelier you are looking for? Definitely, there are lots of chandeliers to choose from, but this article will give you some tips on how to find the right chandelier for you, the one that will meet your style and your budget.
The first thing you should do is determine the type of chandelier you are interested in purchasing. Keep reading →
When you hang a chandelier in your house you acquire something beautiful and practical and an object that will become a focus for the room. All other decorations will revolve around it. It will become a talking point, the centrepiece. A fireplace draws attention to a lower level in a room; a chandelier is the highest point of a room’s decoration.
Never in the long history of the chandelier has there been as much choice as there is today. You can buy over the internet or in person. You can scour the brocante stalls in French markets or the junk shops in England or America.
The type of chandelier which is associated with French work is more open with its main structural support supplied not by chains or a stem but rather by a cage or frame with prettily curved arms, often gilded and with drops or candles in the centre space. Like English chandeliers, they have pendants and chains of drops.
The difference is that instead of being massed together, they are however spaced further apart so that they can be seen individually. The effect is extremely ornate and delicate without being elaborate.
The ironwork on French chandeliers by the 1900s was superbly refined and attractive. The stem might have leaves and stalks curling off it supporting crystal drops, flowers and beads. For all the festoons and bags drops, glass arms, full panoply of other elements, the French chandelier is distinctively never heavy or crowded and always alluring.
Chandeliers come in all sizes and shapes - some more unusual than others. Amongst some of the most eccentric charming chandeliers are those designed to represent hot-air balloons. The early nineteenth century saw a wave of enthusiasm for hot-air balloons, prompted by the first balloon flight by the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph and Michel travelling through the air for some 6 miles in 1783. Some Montgolfier chandeliers are Italian others French.
One of the things you need to be completely sure of is that your chandelier is safe; that when it is installed it will stay up, it will not electrocute anyone or it won’t shed pieces on your head or burn the house down.
If you bought you chandelier from a market or a brocante you should use common sense about its wiring. Any chandelier is only as good as safe electrically speaking as the circuit of which it is part. Have it tested by an electrician and rewired if in doubt.
Made of exquisite Wedgwood hand-made roses especially for Spina, rose clusters nestle beneath beautiful sparkling faceyed crystal beads for a timelessly elegant chandelier.
L.K. of Huntsville, Ontario writes:
We own a large Chinese chandelier which we are interested in evaluating and selling. It was made in Guangzhou, China about 1900 and it has electric lights and candle holders. It appears that it was converted to electric before it was finished.My mother purchased this chandelier in New York City, from a previous owner, about 1940. The total height of this chandelier is 36 inches and it has 6 sides. The bottom light sockets extend up through the mouths of “dragon-fish” and there are six of them. The total width of each side, between the “dragon-fish” is 15 inches.
Each of the sides contains recessed chambers, with a different painting under glass at the back of each chamber, and different figurines at the front of each chamber. The sides of the chambers contain “mirrors” which appear to be polished mica (a couple are missing or partly missing).There are plates under each chamber which were covered with a silk material containing Chinese writing. Unfortunately, this is the only writing that has survived, indicating that this chandelier was made in Guangzhou. It appears that moths may have destroyed the silk over time.
We have been trying to obtain further information on this chandelier for more than two years from museums and experts, but the only answer they can obtain is that there is not another chandelier like this anywhere.
They would appreciate any comments and suggestions that you may have.
******* Colin Ritchie answers:
What an extraordinary object!
Yes, I agree with the senders dating of circa 1900 and what we can read of the inscription says “Guangzhou” therefore we know the piece was made in Canton and very likely for export to the west or commissioned by a westerner perhaps. There is also a portion of further inscription which could be the makers name, unfortunately it is fragmentary and cannot be read from the photograph.
It also appears from the photographs to be embellished with kingfisher feather inlay (the bright azure blue), an exclusive type of decoration originally reserved for the emperor and his family and very closely guarded for a time. By this time though, it had become more widely used without severe penalty.
Some of the other embellishments, like the glass and hardstone beads, may have been added later, as well; it is hard to tell if it is complete or whether it has been altered or reduced.
All in all, a really extraordinary object, very nice to see it is still around and has not been completely “broken-up” and sold as small decorative objects.
Disco never dies, so upgrade your disco ball to a full-time lighting device with minimal upkeep.
The Da Vinci crystal chandelier by Schonbek can be separated into a few pieces and washed in your dishwasher.
It comes in two kinds of crystal and four sizes from 10-24 inches diameter for $1,750-15,395.
My name is Benjamin Stuart, welcome to The Chandelier Blog. Thank you for visiting. Please come along with me as I explore the intricate world of chandeliers and other ornate lamps.
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