DIY Glass Ball Light Fixture

I finally started the project of decorating my apartment. Last night I made a glass ball light fixture. I'm pleased with the results, especially with the patterns it makes on my ceiling. It was extremely easy and cheap, and I'll tell you how I made it.

Materials

10 glass ball ornaments

Thin metal wire

Small light bulb

The idea was for the light bulb to sit inside the cluster of glass balls. I chose to use a small light bulb instead of a standard size light bulb so that the bulb would sit inside the fixture inconspicuously. Had I used a larger bulb, I would have had to use more glass balls. The balls that I chose to use are heavy blown glass, and I doubt that the existing hanging light bulb fixture in my apartment could hold the weight of more of them. So a small light bulb it was.

I built the fixture out of two separate clusters of glass balls, which I tied together with wire. First, I linked seven smaller glass balls together with wire so that the wire formed a ring slightly larger than the diameter of the base of the light bulb. I twisted the wire around the eye closure of the each glass ball ornament before going on the thread the next ball on the wire. Once the top ring of glass balls was assembled, I tied the three larger glass balls together with wire, and then wired them to the ring of smaller bulbs. I nestled the light bulb inside the cluster so that the ring of smaller glass balls surrounded its base. I climbed up on a ladder and screwed the light bulb in, and then secured the fixture to my existing fixture so that the light bulb itself would not be supporting the weight of the glass bulbs.

I like the fixture because it is mod and minimalist, and only cost me $11 in glass balls. I don't like that the wire I used to affix the ball fixture to the existing fixture is visible, but it's a thin wire and I have a high ceiling, so it won't actually be visible to guests. An interesting plus of the fixture is that it casts very trippy concentric circle shadows on my ceiling. If I had time to hang around listening to Pink Floyd albums, I might really enjoy looking at my ceiling. Alas, such is not my lifestyle, but still, I appreciate the notion.

Posted by: Chaya Goodman