Capiz shell look-alike

I found a picture for a really cool chandelier that I wanted to make:

COOL, right?! The effect is to look like “capiz shells”, which are round seashells that are iridescent. This is created by ironing sheets of wax paper together… GENIUS!

I searched and searched for a hanging flower pot that was the right shape and big enough- but the lack of stores in this town took me to walmart, since they were cheapest. Price is directly proportional to size, by the way, but I wanted a big one- So I brought it home, took out the inside part, and spray painted it white.

I’ll start by listing the supplies, since this one is pretty extensive and took me several weeks to complete.

SUPPLIES:

Hanging flower basket

Spray paint, color of your choice

2-3 rolls of ribbon, color of your choice (I made a white one and a blue one, so I used the color of ribbon to match the “shells”.)

Wax paper (LOTS of it, you’ll use close to a whole roll)

Either a cricut or some type of paper cutter to cut wax paper into circles

An iron to iron the wax paper together

Hot glue gun, scissors, and other assorted accessories like beads or gems to add around the top.

Then I went out and bought a paper cutter. You’ll need to rip three long pieces of wax paper and iron them all together. You don’t need the iron to be to hot or use it too long, because wax paper can burn easily. After I had glued 9 pieces together to make 3 large sheets, I stacked them on top of each other and used my paper cutter to make 2” diameter circles. I made a LOT! I felt like I cut out circles forever!

I taped down the edges, as my wax paper tended to move when I pushed down on the paper cutter. After I had several circles, I figured I would get started on gluing them.

(Just for the record, in case my mother sees this, I did NOT use the rotary cutter on the wax paper! But really though, sometimes my cutter didn’t get all the way through and I had to cut a few out.)

Next, I cut my ribbon strips- length is up to you, but I think mine were between 6-8”.

I hung up the wire frame on a hook in the ceiling above the sink in the kitchen. I then began hot gluing the ribbon to the frame on the very bottom rung. I then glued a circle at the top of the ribbon, and continued hot gluing circles below the one above. I offset them so they wouldn’t be so crowded:

I continued up to the top until I was almost done with the last row:

(I had to stop several times to cut out more circles, I severely underestimated my need!)

This is the final ring of circles after they were staggered:

I thought it looked a little bare, and since I had some ribbon left over, I decided to add ribbon to the wire up to the hook, and around the top ring. Then I got some beads and added a little color!

And there it is, all finished!! It looks really awesome when it’s lit. For the light part, I bought the light kits that IKEA has- a plug in and a lightbulb end that I threaded up through the hook. I think it was about $6. I also made a blue version, where I ironed the wax paper on either side of a sheet of blue tissue paper, but it didn’t stick very well and I ended up having to use spray-on aerosol glue, and that was very sticky. Here’s what that one looks like:

I like the white one better, but it was an experiment, and not all experiments go smoothly! I also used less ribbon on this one and just glued the circles to themselves instead of the ribbon. Not sure which way I like it better!