DIY: Capiz Shell Wax Paper Chandelier

This is going to be a lengthy post so settle in. I got obsessed with the idea of these chandeliers. They were literally everywhere I looked especially on Pinterest (which if you’re not on it yet, you are missing out). I’ve always been a fan of capiz shell things, and this is no exception.

Anyways I thought I would try my hand at creating one of these puppies so I could give you a play-by-play on how to make one for yourself. Be warned, it does take a little patience and a little time.

Supplies Needed:

Wax paper 4-6 rolls

Parchment paper 1 roll

Circle cutter

Wire basket or something to attach shells to

White ribbon or string 5 rolls

Clothes iron

Scissors

Cutting safe surface

Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun

Step One: Circle Making

I probably used 4-6 rolls of wax paper. I layer 3 sheets of wax paper on top of each other because I wanted a thicker looking shell. I put parchment paper above and below the wax paper to keep it from sticking to the table or worse sticking to the iron. You can throw the parchment paper away when you’re done with it. You’re then going to spend approximately 10-100 hours cutting out circles. Haha, I’m just kidding it shouldn’t take quite that long, hopefully. You can cut them out by hand or you can buy a handy-dandy circle cutter from Hobby Lobby or Micheals. I splurged the ten extra beans to save myself from an early case of arthritis. I suggest making your circles about 1-2 inches in diameter.

See how they look like they have a little texture to the wax paper circle if you do the layering? Don’t worry if they don’t come out perfect every time, once you put the whole chandelier together you won’t even be able to tell if there are a couple of wonky ones.I think I made at least 500 circles and just kept piling them into a bowl.

Step 2: Glue Glue Glue, Burn Fingers, Glue Glue Glue

I went hunting for baskets to use as the bones for my chandelier. If I could have done it over again I probably would have picked something with less layers. But for all intents and purposes this worked pretty well. I found this one at a garden center. It has what 7 rungs on it? Yeah that’s really too many, even though I think I only used 3 or 4 of them.

I began by cutting ribbon apart to hang on the rings. It’s easiest to start from the bottom and work your way up. Glue the ribbon to the basket. Then glue the circles up the ribbon, again work from the bottom up.

This shot is further back so you can see how many strings I initially put on the bottom of the basket but then decided that was too many so I took a few off.

Really there are only two excruciatingly long steps but the rest is just so pretty.

So I figured I better get this bad boy hung up over the light that I wanted to originally cover. But if you haven’t met me or seen me you may not know that I tower in at about 5 feet tall, watch out world, but the problem is the ceiling is much more than 5 feet off the ground. In fact, it’s about 9 feet. And I could only find my little step-ladder, so I had a very don’t-try-this-at-home moment and scrambled up on top of my kitchen table that was right underneath the light I was going to cover. Well sadly I still could only barely just reach the light, much less steady myself to screw in the hooks on the ceiling. I was just planning to use these simple little twist in ceiling hooks. I could have put more in but the whole structure was so light-weight I only needed two.

In another moment of haste I decided instead of waiting on someone taller to come help me I would add a chair to stand on, on top of my already precarious perch. Luckily I didn’t fall, but looking back at that I’m feeling something close to shame. But I did get my chandelier hung. Look at how pretty it is when it’s all lit up.

Here’s a close up of the chandelier with all its glowing goodness. It just makes me feel all warm inside. Especially when it seems to throw light the way it does.

There you have it, super simple to make! Not so easy to hang though. I do have a few suggestions, thoughts if I may before I end this post. 1) I’ve played with the idea of making another wax paper chandelier and then sewing the circles together, so that might be worth a shot if you want to venture it. 2) If you are not in love with the color white as I am I think it would be simple to shave off some pieces of crayons in colors you desire and lay those between the wax sheets when you are first creating circles. I would iron the color in between the wax sheets for a fun colored chandelier. Think you might take a stab at it? Have you created any craft look alikes lately? Better yet, have any of you made poor choices when it come to safety with crafts?

-You know you love me-
Shannon