I’m Finally Ready To Talk About It (Here’s The Pendant Light Status)

Okay, I’m finally ready to give y’all the scoop on the pendant light that I’m making to go over my desk in the studio. If you’ve been following along, you know that I originally cut, sanded, and primed 1200 wood tasting spoons for this pendant light, and then I painted enough of those spoons in 15 different colors so that the spoons could be hung on 15 different lampshade rings spaced 3/4-inch apart. I attached each spoon with a jump ring through a tiny hole that I drilled in the top of each spoon bowl.

This is what the rings looked like after I had attached all of the spoons and grouped them together to prepare to connect all 15 lampshade rings together to form one funnel-shaped pendant light…

This whole project, from the beginning, has been one process of trial and error after another. So it took forever to get the project to this point where I was ready to put the rings together.

Then figuring out how to attach the lampshade rings together took me ten rounds of trial and error before I landed on the perfect solution for securely attaching the lampshade rings to each other while maintaining the perfect distance between the lampshade rings. Or so I thought. I shared about that entire process here.

But once I spent all that time trying, failing, trying again, failing again, on repeat nine times, and then I spent all that time putting all 15 rings together using what I thought was the perfect method, I stood back and looked at it, and I didn’t like it at all.

Not only was the overall look too long to my eye, but even after all of that trial and error, the final distance between the rings was too much. They needed to be closer together. I couldn’t believe it. After all of that trial and error, and after thinking I had found the perfect solution for the perfect distance, it just wasn’t right.

But I didn’t cry. I didn’t throw a fit. At that point, all I could do was laugh, and try to figure out a solution. I hadn’t come this far, and I hadn’t spent all that time painting spoons, to give up. I was determined to make this work. Being defeated by this light wasn’t even an option at this point.

So I pulled up a ladder, and started removing all of those split rings that I had added between all of the chain links, and then linking the chain links together. Here’s the split ring that I was removing…

And once it was removed, this is what all of the connections looked like. As it turned out, this two-link solution that I thought was too short while working at my work table was actually perfect once the light was hanging from the ceiling…

But at this point, I wasn’t working at my work table anymore. I was removing all of those split rings while standing on a ladder and working on the light while it hung from the ceiling.

Once I got all of those done, it looked so much better, but it was still too long. So I ended up removing the bottom two rings altogether. So now, instead of 15 colors, the light had 13 colors. But the shape and the proportions looked so much better to my eye.

But here’s the clincher. Once I had the spacing of the lampshade rings right, and the proportion of the pendant light correct, I started spacing out the spoons the 3/4-inch that I had planned, only to realize that the spacing was way too far. With them spaced 3/4-inch apart, the whole thing looked way too sparse. It was at that point that I realized I actually needed double the amount of spoons than what I had painted and prepared.

At that point, the light had defeated me. It won that battle, for sure. It wasn’t going to win overall, but I was done for the time being. For my own mental health, I needed to walk away and focus on other things. And I needed to not talk about this project for a while. And I needed to come to grips with the fact that I needed to paint 850 additional spoons. But I wasn’t ready to jump right into that, so I turned my attention to my desk makeover.

But as I mentioned, my dear friend Lori is in town for a few days. Before she even came, she said that I could put her to work while she’s here. She’d be willing to help me with any project where I needed some extra hands. I had no intention of actually doing that, but when she and my mom came over after our lunch on Wednesday, and I was showing her the progress on my studio, I showed them the pendant light and explained what happened…and what needed to happen to finish the light. And she said, “Well, can’t we help you paint the spoons?”

Thankfully, I already had 450 spoons cut, sanded, and primed. But I needed an additional 400. Lori had plans for breakfast and lunch, so yesterday, after Matt and I finished lunch, I cut handles off of 400 additional spoons, and then sanded them. And just as I finished sanding the very last spoon, my Life360 notification popped up on my phone telling me that my mom and Lori were pulling up in my driveway. The timing was perfect.

So after visiting for a while, we got busy. I didn’t bother priming the new spoons, We had a limited amount of time, and we needed to paint these 850 spoons in 13 different colors.

So the three of us sat/stood around my work table and talked, and talked, and talked, while sanding and painting spoons. So after an hour of sanding, followed by four hours of painting, we had all 850 spoons painted in the 13 colors.

We didn’t get any of the gold done. I’ll have to do that myself. But they saved me hours and hours of work. At this point, the rest of it feels very manageable to me. I don’t have that overwhelmed, defeated feeling anymore. And I loved every minute of being able to spend those hours with two of my favorite people, laughing, talking, reminiscing (Lori and I were roommates for almost two years in our mid-20s, and after I moved to Turkey, Lori was like another daughter to my parents), and having a great time together. So it all worked out in the most beautiful way. I mean, it still remains to be seen if the actual light will work out in a beautiful way, but I have high hopes. And both my mom and Lori said they thought it was going to be amazing when it’s finished. They’re the only ones who have seen it in person so far, and I tend to agree with them. I think it will be amazing. And as of yesterday, we’re no longer on a break, and we’re no longer in a battle. Or if we are, I’ll for sure win this one.

 

 

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22 Comments

  1. Yes! It does look so much better! I am so happy for you to have been able to spend so much time with your people. Those times can mean everything.

  2. Looks fantastic already. I also love the part where “Many hands make light work.”, as was my grandmother’s favorite saying, and she was right. Two suggestions, shorten the cord so that you perhaps can have the 15 rows of color, and make sure you have a “diffuser” at the top, so that the light will come down, not go up on the ceiling. I’ve learned this one the hard way since I make most of our lights. It is awesome watching this project coming along, albeit from a distance and not face to face with something that is more surprising than a snake in the hen’s box with 4 eggs in him/her…I didn’t check on the sex of the snake, I just got it out of there gently. They do keep the mice down in the coop. Keep going, you’ve got all of us sending you positive energy and willpower. My snake story was to help you realize that sanding spoons in air conditioning might be tedious but is not as bad as some things.
    Cheers!

  3. The lamp will be beautiful, no doubt! You can always depend on friends and family (and all of your followers if we lived nearby) to help you. I am fascinated that you lived in Turkey! Perhaps when you have spare time (spare time, what’s that?), you could ⁷ why you went to Turkey. Where did you go? How long were you there?
    Did you learn the language? We have visited Turkey and loved the country and the people.

  4. It’s so incredibly nice that you have a friend and a mom willing to help you with this project. Time is our most precious asset and they spent their time on you. What a blessing to have such people in your life!
    You’ve got this for sure and we (speaking for all followers) can barely wait to see the results! It will be phenomenal!

  5. It all looks absolutely amazing! Of course, I don’t know if this might be a possible
    problem or not but if the spoons might shift due to a fan blowing and a spacer between each spoon is needed I was thinking a weight used for fishing line crimped on the wire
    between each spoon (painted gold) might work.

  6. BRAVO!!! Wish I had been there to help! Especially if there were cookies! LOL
    Over all my years of crafting & DIY in many areas, I have found that if I run into a situation like you did with 10+ tries at getting the ring to ring hangers just right, I usually don’t have to do all the experimenting if I walk away from it for a couple days and let my subconscious brain figure out the details. The light bulb always comes on at some point! I get frustrated too easily. I have also found that thinking outside the container and getting over into other retail genres can be a big help. I think I have finally come to the point that I ask myself, what is the end result I want and what options do I have to get there.
    I wonder if it would have helped you to have a place within reach to hang the rings so you could see how it looked hanging up? I have a repurposed IV pole to hang stuff on. Put a large hook in the ceiling of the carport, have a small rope you could tie to something like the lampshade and them pull it up so you can clearly see how it will hang instead of climbing on a ladder. Have a boat cleat on the wall to tie the rope off on so you can work on the object.

  7. Your perserverance and tenacity are amazing! I would not abandon the project either, but it would probably be months before I was willing to begin to tackle it once again. It is going to be magnificent!

  8. When I saw the title of this post, my first thought was, “oh no, she’s going to give up and find another lamp!” It would have been completely understandable if you had done that, but I’m so glad you didn’t.

    Two thoughts/questions: since it seems like you’re basically doubling the number of sppons on each row, what about only painting the back gold and not the edging on the front? That would save you some time and it could be every other spoon had a solid color front vs. gold edging on the front. [my guess is you wouldn’t like how it looks and it wouldn’t actually save that much time; I would probably be the same way if it was me, but figured I would throw it out there just in case]

    Also, what about still using the two colors you removed, but making the rings much smaller and possibly closer together, so that instead of a straight angled line as the rings got smaller, it looked like the bottom of the lamp was sort of curving closed? Alternatively, could you use those purpley-blue spoons elsewhere, to tie the chandelier to another part of the room? Maybe the lights by the floral wallpaper or the sconces behind your desk?

    I know whatever you do will look amazing in the end!

  9. My favorite visits with friends are busy visits. Helping with a project, folding laundry, anything that keeps hands busy while we talk. It adds to the memory.

  10. There’a nothing better than having friends and family who have your back and are willing to help when you are feeling defeated or lost. So glad you have your people around you and it will be stunning.

  11. Yay for friends and family who jump in to help in times of need! ❤️

    I can’t wait to see the finished product. I think the individual spoons are beautiful. They really caught my eye when I saw the picture on Facebook the first time. I can’t imagine that the light could end up being anything but amazing.

  12. You sure will win this Kristi. It made me feel happy for you that you got to spend time with you Mom and your good friend, plus getting their help with this project, and enjoying every minute of it. This light is going to bring you much pleasure for the rest of your life. You will always have the memory of how you made it from start to finish. The trial and error will most likely make you smile as you remember the blessed fun you enjoyed with your Mom and friend working on it with you too.

  13. So sorry this project has been a bear! But you will win, I am sure. Taking a break was great, as you had been solving/adjusting/figuring things all the way through this one. I know it will be special when done, and I’m so happy your mom and friend loved working with you while visiting…what an awesome way to keep busy AND visit! Looking forward to seeing the desk, AND the lamp!

  14. Ah, it’s miserable when that happens. I made a crochet Christmas wreath once with 40 crocheted holly leaves – and then realised that, actually, it needed more like 120. Like you, I buckled down and made them, and it was a drag, but the final result looks brilliant.

  15. The thing I love about you is your process and how you are so solution oriented. You step back, reassess and re-create. We should all be like that. And having help is always a great idea…and fun.

  16. Sometimes help is really HELP. Could you put jewelry spacers between each spoon to hold it in place? Just a tiny spacer of gold enough so the spoons actually fill in the whole wire?

    You have spent a fortune in time on this light.

  17. Hi! Why aren’t the spoons painted completely? I haven’t seen your posts for a while and maybe missing an element for completion.
    Nice concept tho…

  18. YAY!!! The struggle make the prize all that much sweeter. Praise God for friends, persistence, and any creative ability whatsoever, much less amazing stuff like THIS!

  19. I know I haven’t tried it so perhaps it would be more trouble than the way you have done it but if I had planned that shade I would have kept the handles on the spoons so I could hold them while I painted them and sanded and drilled them and then cut the handles off and sanded the cut.
    Once I put it together and found I didn’t have enough spoons I would have bought smaller rings.
    And rather than assembling it on my desk I would have suspended it from a hook I could reach while sitting or standing at my desk.
    But, number one I would never have had taken on such a major, finicky project in the first place because I am the kind of person that likes instant gratification. I have always said that laziness, not necessity, is the mother of invention.
    That said, I can’t wait to see the finished product because I know, like everything else you create, it will be gorgeous. I wish I had your will and your persistence and your perfectionism and your vision because your home is gorgeous and we all learn so much from you.
    I have followed you since the condo days and always look forward to what you will do next.