Make a chandelier in Gzhel style with your own hands. DIY chandelier from improvised materials: detailed master classes

A chandelier in any room has long been not only a device for lighting. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the piece of furniture that acts as the main decoration in any room.

Of course, a do-it-yourself chandelier will be especially valuable thing. This will not only highlight the special taste of the owners of the house, but also their creative mind.

Despite the fact that deciding to make a lampshade with your own hands for a chandelier, you will need to spend a lot of effort, because the process requires special concentration - for sure, the time of work cannot be considered wasted, since the work will bring incredible pleasure and even a pleasant aftertaste will remain after, and in the future you will definitely want to repeat this kind of work.

If you are thinking about how to make a chandelier, then you have probably already seen that today you can use the most various materials and sometimes quite unusual. For example, very often the ceiling for a chandelier is made of wood or glass.

However, if you want something even more incredible, then you can also use cardboard, wooden skewers, and even wine bottles. The choice here depends solely on the ideas that the creator has, as well as on various kinds of wishes from the owners of the apartment.

In addition, a chandelier made from improvised materials must also be created taking into account the general interior of the room.

Chandelier made of plastic spoons

Disposable spoons, which most people are used to using exclusively for a picnic, can actually also be one of the simplest and at the same time easily accessible materials for everyone to create an interesting chandelier option for any room.

If you look at a photo of a chandelier of such a plan, you will first of all be struck by the variety of colors, and in the future it will be easy to understand that the material will last a long time.

In addition, in order to create such an interesting piece of furniture, you will need a minimum of financial and material investments.

What materials will be needed?

• Any empty plastic bottle. The only condition is that its volume cannot be less than five liters.
• Any plastic spoons. Their number depends solely on the chosen size of the future chandelier.
• Glue that will allow you to glue the plastic together.
• Cartridge from an old, no longer working chandelier.

The process of creating an original chandelier

Prepare a plastic bottle. First of all, you need to get rid of the label and the bottom, as well as dry it properly.

Remove the plastic spoons and use a knife to remove any handles that are not needed. The only thing to do is to leave a couple of centimeters above the so-called “scoop” level.

Glue the blanks to the base of the prepared bottle. On the “tail” that remains, you need to apply as much glue as possible and then press it to the surface.

It is very important to continue to cover the entire bottle in this way directly in a circle until the entire prepared perimeter is “occupied” with plastic spoons.

It is best to arrange them in a classic checkerboard pattern and move them together a little.

In this way, it will be possible to reduce the number of "free spots" to a minimum.

• The cover is removed from the old cooked chandelier and placed in a dried bottle.
• If there is a desire, then decorative more often can be done in a similar way.

That's all. It remains only to install the chandelier in the chosen place, and also check its operation by connecting it to the power supply.

Another interesting chandelier option is the chandelier with decorative butterflies. It is worth noting that, having gone to almost any master class for making a chandelier, designers always offer to learn how to create it, which is not surprising, because it can fit perfectly into almost any room interior.

Note!

Besides that this option looks really luxurious and expensive, even a child can make it with the help of an adult, so its popularity is easily explained.

DIY chandelier photo

Note!

In this article we will figure out how to make a lamp with your own hands. IN initial publication cycle - - general requirements for quality, methods of forming a luminous flux, as well as how to choose a light source and - safety first - the rules for connecting a stationary lamp to the mains were considered. From the previous article, we learned how to make the main lighting parts of the lamp -. Now it's time to take on the solid, reliable and beautiful constructive basis of all this.

About LEDs

LEDs as lighting sources are becoming increasingly popular: they are very economical, durable, almost do not heat up, which provides ample opportunities for self-construction and design. In addition, low-voltage power makes LED light sources safe. Therefore, in this article a significant proportion of the material is devoted to how to make your own LED lamp.

However, the quality of light from LEDs has not yet reached the ideal: his spectrum is pretty tight. You can soften it with various lighting techniques, which was discussed in previous articles. But thanks low voltage supply a street or garden LED lamp can be made independently without special precautions, and also be self-contained; then bulk earthworks and cable laying on the site disappear. In this section, we will focus more on LED lamps.

Some examples of what can be achieved by taking on lighting equipment with your own hands are shown in the photo. A similar selection “for ideas” or “for inspiration” will be compiled by anyone who knows how to use the Internet. And here we will deal with things that are not so aesthetic: how to embody all this in the material. Cheap, reliable and practical. Preferably at home, on your knees.

Materials, tools, equipment, technologies

To make a good lamp, expensive and / or hard-to-find materials are not needed. Former technologies focused on incandescent lamps, which are very hot and consume a lot of current. The current homemade ones have housekeeper lamps and LEDs that emit little heat, which simplifies the design.

For the manufacture of a lamp, neither in appearance nor in quality inferior to industrial designs, we need cuttings of metal tubes, steel wire with a diameter of 1.5-2.5 mm, galvanized sheet steel 0.4-1 mm thick and pieces of plastic or inexpensive plastic products, see below. And in many cases, to achieve the desired result, it is possible to get by with unnecessary trash. Wood processing for complex lamp- a special case, we will not bypass it.

Note: good old glass also should not be discounted. Take a look at this tutorial for example: diy.ru/post/3916/. That's what can be achieved by working at home with such difficult material. Only one small "but" - what the author of the product (a man, no doubt, very skillful and quick-witted) calls cutting, in fact, edging. However, how to call it is the business of letter-eaters, and it is enough for the master to make the contraption good.

Very simple but tasteful

Examples of excellent lamps made from improvised materials, namely, scraps of wood and paper, are well-known Chinese lanterns, see fig. When using modern light sources, their fire hazard is negligible, much less than that of an electric kettle. The basis is most often a rack frame, pasted over with paper, pos. 1. For the frame of what is in pos. 2, thin bamboo sticks are better (you can split an old rod into strips), or the ends of modern fiberglass rods; sold in fishing shops. The joints are wrapped with thread and glued. Paper (preferably rice) after pasting is lightly sprayed with water from a spray bottle. When dry, it will stretch. After that, the paper is varnished for strength.

A Chinese lantern can also be made entirely of wood: chopsticks or table skewers (wooden twigs on which barbecue and kebab are served at the table). Both are made of light, fairly well-reflecting light, wood. And its slightly rough surface effectively scatters light, which softens it.

From chopsticks, placing them with broadened heads alternately to the left, then to the right, side light-transmitting panels are gaining, pos. 3. And from table skewers it turns out quite good ceiling lamp for the kitchen or hallway, pos. 4. The ends of the sticks (they are made of soft wood) are simply pierced with a sewing needle with a fishing line threaded into it.

Plastics

But back to the materials, they are not finished yet. Excellent details of chandeliers, table lamps and floor lamps (cups, caps, see below) are obtained from reusable plastic tableware- bowls, glasses, saucers: the rim on the bottom is carefully cut off or sanded down. Then this place is passed 2-3 times with increasingly fine sandpaper; the last pass - "velvet" - and polished with felt with GOI paste. The decorative, lighting and technological (ease of processing) qualities of such parts are very good.

The second type of plastic, which allows you to make a very original lamp(see fig.) – polymer clay Or just plastic. In terms of lighting properties, it is not inferior to light wood, and in a thin, 2-3 mm layer, it is translucent, like milk glass, i.e. softens the light very well.

Polymer clay is available in various colors immediately-plastic in plastic bags and bars, like plasticine. The latter are quite hard at first, but soften when kneading. To speed up and facilitate softening, you need to put 3-4 drops on the bar vegetable oil, and start kneading when it is absorbed.

Lampshades are molded from soft plastic on a mandrel lubricated with petroleum jelly. Immediately, if necessary, they fill the texture with a brush, at the bottom right in fig. To obtain an openwork ceiling, the tip of the package is cut off and the mass is squeezed out with a sausage. After about a day, the product dries up, then you can, without removing it from the mandrel, cut out figures, scallops, frills. Completely the product dries up in 3-7 days.

Bar plastic is used for the manufacture of lamp stands. Having molded the workpiece, it is baked in the oven at 120-130 degrees. When a brownish crust forms on the product, the gas is covered to a minimum and “baked” for another 1-3 hours, depending on the size of the part. It should cool completely in the oven, which is undesirable to open. The baked workpiece can be cut, sawn, drilled, polished, painted. In this way, lamp cases are sometimes not only original, but also quite spicy (see the figure), or even frivolous on the verge of decency, or even beyond it.

Ceramics

Since we are talking about coasters, let's try to make a lamp out of a bottle. Ceramic beverage vessels crafted by in-house designers deserve best use than garbage, moonshine or recyclables for pennies.

There are 2 problems here: stability and holes for cable entry and a switch. The first is solved with sand, poured into the bottle by 2/3 or 3/4. To solve the second, it would seem that a tubular diamond drill is needed, which is expensive, wears out quickly, and requires a high-speed drilling machine. And we can do without all this:

• We will select a copper tube of a suitable diameter.
• We will securely fix the vessel that we will drill so that the drill enters along the normal (perpendicular) to its surface in this place.
• Around the place of the future hole, we will fashion a roller 4-6 mm high from plasticine.
• Let's rub a couple of pieces of fine skin against each other over some pallet to get about a teaspoon of corundum powder.
• Pour it into the hole and drip 3-5 drops of engine oil - you can drill.

For drilling, a drill clamped in a chuck copper tube it is better to put it in a frame that turns it into a desktop drilling machine. Such beds are sold in tool stores; the prices are divine, the benefit to the artisan is invaluable. Moreover, you can buy a turntable with a degree scale to the bed.

They drill ceramics with copper and corundum in jerks: slightly pressed - raised - pressed again - raised. Abrasive particles first eat into copper and drill, but then they break out and crumble. Pulse drilling constantly renews the corundum “plating” on copper, and the oil prevents the powder from scattering and speeds up the work. The main thing is that the tube, with each feed, falls exactly into the already selected groove.

Electrical fittings

For a novice lighting engineer, it is best, perhaps, to use cartridges for lamps for a regular E27 base with fastening with union shaped nuts (threaded flanges); its designation begins with E27H, and the drawing is shown in fig. It will not work to fasten such a cartridge, or a regular one with a skirt, with a threaded fitting in the lid: if there is an M10x1 or M12x1 die, then at home, with a manual wrench, cut the thread on a thin-walled tube without cutting it and not rolling it, very difficult, even with grease. Under mounting with flanges, you will have to make a mounting ring, as described in the article on lampshades, it is much easier.

Note: if done Wall Light, in which the lamp is located along the base, cartridges with a side bar are usually used, see Fig., But they are more expensive. In this case, you can also get by with a flange cartridge: an Ω-shaped clamp is bent from the wire and fastened to the base with self-tapping screws.

The second thing you need is a screw terminal connector, or a terminal block, or just a terminal block, to connect the lamp to the wiring. For a chandelier, it is mandatory not only for the sake of ease of installation, but also according to the requirements of safety regulations: suddenly the chandelier breaks, its thinner wires break out of the terminal block, and the ceiling wiring does not suffer, which will prevent an accident and ceiling-grooving repair work.

It is better to take a terminal block of the “comb” type, see Fig.:

Such are compact, reliable, exclude accidental short circuits, and by biting the jumpers between sections, it is elementary to get a connector for the required number of wires. It is allowed to enter no more than 2 stranded wires with a copper cross section of up to 1.4 square meters into each terminal. mm in total and not more than 1 single-core, regardless of the cross-sectional area of ​​​​its conductive core.

About wooden lamps

The tree, on the one hand, is easily processed and looks solidly finished. On the other hand, to make an elegant wooden lamp, you will have to use some special technological methods. Which we will consider.

cable channels

The first problem that arises in the manufacture of a wooden lamp is how to make channels for the cable in long parts. To do this, without special equipment, “on the knee”, you can use a wood drill with a narrowed 6-sided shank, see fig. A metal tube is tightly put on it, crimped, and the opposite end is bent in a T-shape to make a manual collar; to facilitate and greater accuracy of work, it is better to take a two-band drill.

Through axial holes in long wooden parts are drilled in advance, before bending:

1. At both ends of the workpiece, blind holes of the desired diameter are drilled, with a depth of 30-40 mm, trying to ensure that they go as accurately as possible along the axis of the part;
2. They drill with the described manual wrench alternately from both ends, each time passing no more than 3-4 thicknesses of the part;
3. The chips from the holes after each pass are carefully removed;
4. After the jumper is broken, the hole passes through twice, from one and the other end. This is necessary to remove the step inside, which the cable can catch on when tightened.

How to bend a tree?

It is quite possible to make a lamp from bent wooden parts with your own hands: seasoned thin-layer wood softens under heating, without delamining, but when cooled down, retains the shape given to it. The easiest to bend is bamboo, walnut and soft wood, eg. Linden. Harder - wood of medium hardness: maple, ash, hornbeam. For bending oak, beech, mountain ash, etc. hard rock a novice cabinetmaker is better not to take it. MDF also bends well.

The wood is bent either steamed in boiling water, or heated dry to more than 150 degrees. The first method is simpler, but suitable, except for bamboo, for a few species. The second is more difficult, but more accurate, because. wood does not swell and when cooled, respectively, does not shrink.

For bending wood, a cut is needed steel pipe: Welded end for steaming or both open for dry bending. The pipe for steaming is installed obliquely, a workpiece is placed in it, poured with water on top and boiled. Boiling water must be violent so that the workpiece is bathed in steam bubbles. The process is continued for 10-120 minutes, depending on the thickness, species and condition of the tree. You can take out the workpiece for a few seconds to check its readiness, but you only need to add boiling water instead of boiled water. Dry bending, blowing the workpiece in the pipe with a building hair dryer. First, on a sample of wood, you need to check what temperature it can withstand without charring and cracking.

How to tighten cables?

The cables are tightened into the tubular parts of the fixtures using a guide rod - "fishing rods" - made of copper wire with a diameter of 0.5-0.7 mm. "Fishing rod" should be completely flat; a smoothly curved wire wound from a reel can also be crumpled in a narrow channel. The wire of the "fishing rod" is straightened, stretching it through a rag tightly clenched in the fist. The best guides are made from enameled winding wire, which is smooth and slippery.

"Fishing rod" is introduced from the far end. Before this, its tip is tightly bent, see Fig., To be rounded. The thrust is pushed into the curved channels, slightly feeding and turning. When moving from channel to channel (see below), the running end is directed with thin long tweezers or a screwdriver.

When the end of the rod appears from the opposite side, it is cleaned by 20-30 mm and tinned. The cable wires are cleaned and tinned for the same amount, up to 3 per 1 "fishing rod". Then everything is twisted together and soldered. The twist is folded opposite to the direction of tightening so that it does not cling. Tighten by alternately feeding the cable and pulling the guide. When tightening, the cable in the channel must not be taut all the time! If it is hooked, they pull it back a little, turn it a little and pull it again.

Note: up to 4 2-wire double-insulated cables with a cross-section of copper wires up to 0.5 sq. M can be pulled into a straight metal tube with an inner diameter of 12 mm. mm. In a channel of the same diameter in a tree - only 1 of the same cable.

Starting from the ceiling

Suspension of the lamp to the ceiling or wall is the most critical and vulnerable node. Hanging fixtures at the 1st point is allowed only if the base is a viscous durable material, for example. oak beams, pos. a) in fig. In other cases, you must either use at least 2 suspension points, or the luminaire anchor must press on the material from above, i.e. the ceiling must work in compression, pos. c) - e).

A chandelier weighing up to 5 kg is suspended using a mounting plate, see fig. on right. The distance between the centers of the mounting holes in the plank should be, for a concrete ceiling, at least 9 of their diameters. If the ceiling is plasterboard, or suspended, or stretched, then the suspension is lowered from the main ceiling to the level of the decorative one using wooden or metal crosses or plywood boards, at the top there. How to make a suspension in some other cases, see below.

The main requirement for the suspension is that the lamp should never hang on wires. It should be held either by a rigid bar, or a strong cord / rope, or a cradle made of chains or the same cords. Under the top cap of the gimbal, the power cable must lie in a loose loop, and must not be pulled, pinched or pinched anywhere.

How to make a lamp?

Now he will try to reduce the information received into a single product, at the sight of which the guests will gasp as sincerely as the master expressed himself while working. We will be guided by the following principles:

• Complex and / or technological operations requiring special skills are avoided in every possible way.
• Adhesive or solder joints are used only auxiliary, holding the parts to be joined from displacement. The product assembled without gluing and soldering should, in the absence of external influences, remain intact in its normal position for an indefinitely long time.
• From an additional tool, we will try to get by with a hand-held electric drill and a small removable bench vise with a screw clamp for attaching to the table.

Let's start with a chandelier, as the most complex type of household lamp.

Chandelier

On a cord

The simplest suspension of a chandelier weighing up to 5 kg is on a cord, pos. 1 in fig. In this case, 4 additional holes will have to be drilled in the lampshade mounting ring (see article on lampshades); marked in green in pos. 1a. Cord knots must be knitted that do not slip or unravel, for example. any fishing hooks. Cord - any non-rotting cross lay (eg linen) with a diameter in an unstretched state of 8 mm or more. Cords and ropes of spiral lay are not intended for long-term tensile load!

The most critical part is the suspension hook (red CP). It must be bent from steel wire with a diameter of 4 mm; a hook made of 6 mm wire rod can withstand weight up to 35 kg. Of course, if you buy a ready-made hook for a chandelier, it will not be worse.

Suspension rods with the same weight - from 4 mm wire; with a weight of up to 5 kg, you can get by with 1.5 mm, and with a weight of up to 12 kg - 2.5-3 mm. The ring is made of galvanized sheet 0.4 and 0.8 mm, respectively, or, for weights up to 35 kg, 1.4 mm.

Note: steel soldering technology at home is described in.

In this case, it is better to fix the upper cup from slipping with a rubber ring, because. the spring washer can crush the cable passing under it. good pallet obtained from a computer disk. Depending on whether the lamp is in the lampshade or in the ceiling, it is turned down, respectively, with the painted or mirror side. Radial cuts are made under the stretch marks of the lampshade in the pallet.

The top cup and cap are made of plastic utensils, see above. The cap lies freely on the pallet. Glue - any assembly.

Note: the bottom nut of the cartridge must enter the hole in the pan, and not press it. Otherwise, it may be difficult to repair or clean the chandelier.

On the tube

In a chandelier suspended on a rigid tubular rod (pos. 2), firstly, it is not necessary to bend the suspension rods so that it is convenient to knit a knot on their crosshairs. Secondly, the number of pulls can be anything from 3. Accordingly, the ring can also be made without an additional row of holes, such as is described in the article on lampshades.

It is preferable to fix the cap in such a chandelier with a shaped (decorative) spring washer. It can be obtained from a thick plastic button by drilling a hole in the center of it 0.5-0.7 mm narrower than the outer diameter of the tube and making an oblique cut at 45 degrees to the axis of the washer, a round link of a plastic chain with the same cut, etc. P.

An eye for a hook in the suspension bar is obtained by flattening the tube and drilling a hole in the resulting lamella (petal). After that (and not before), a hole is drilled for laying the cable, otherwise dangerous mechanical stresses may remain in the material. A bar for a lamp weight of up to 15 kg can be made from pipes of the following types:

1. Seamless steel - inner diameter from 6 mm, wall thickness from 0.5 mm. Finishing - painting or covering with a heat-shrinkable tube (HERE) of the desired color.
2. Steel with a seam - vnutr. diameter from 8 mm, wall thickness from 0.7 mm. The finish is the same.
3. Copper gas in a plastic sheath - vnutr. diameter from 8 mm, wall from 1 mm. Finishing is not necessary, and so it shines with copper for years. Can't solder adhesive connection you need to remove the plastic cover in that place.
4. For air conditioning systems made of oxygen-free copper - int. diameter from 10 mm, wall from 1 mm. Very easy to solder and glue. To preserve the copper shine, you need to cover the finished rod twice with transparent acrylic varnish water-based, diluted twice with distilled water.
5. Simple red copper - int. diameter from 12 mm, wall from 1.5 mm. It is soldered after stripping, you need to use flux paste with borax. It darkens with time and under coating, so it is better to make lamps in retro style from such tubes.
6. Plumbing propylene - very durable, but do not stick and, of course, do not solder. It is useless to finish, the design in any case turns out to be terrifying.

many-horned

From the tubes, you can make chandeliers with brackets-horns for individual illuminators. The device for connecting the horns with the rod is shown in pos. 5. The horns, with their even number, are connected in pairs with through threaded studs M2.5-M4 with nuts and spring washers. Pairs of holes for the studs are located at different levels, this must be taken into account when calculating the height of the straight part of the horn and making markings on their blanks. You can horns, incl. with an odd number of them, fasten with pairs of small self-tapping screws for metal, however, then the cables must be tightened very carefully so as not to tear the insulation on the sharp ends of the hardware protruding inward.

Note: complex / extended tube bends are formed section by section, gradually moving the manual pipe bender along the length of the future bend.

If the free ends of the horns are without squiggles (sorry - volute), etc. curls, then it is better to cover the knot of their connection with the barbell with a cap lying on the lower cup (shown by a dotted line in pos. 5). In addition, then the laying of cables will be much simpler: a terminal block will fit under the cap, in which the cables from the horns will converge, and only one 2-wire will go up in the bar.

Multi-track chandeliers are most often made with switchable light. The diagram for connecting lamps to a 2-section switch is shown in pos. 6. Do not forget - SB switches (switches) must be included in the phase wire! And yet, it is extremely important: if the house is equipped with protective grounding, never use a ground wire as a neutral (zero, N) regardless of the power supply scheme (grounded or isolated neutral)! The earthing switch is always in yellow insulation with a longitudinal stripe, and the neutral insulation in properly arranged wiring is black. But anyway, before starting electrical work you need to find zero and phase with a phase indicator!

About phases, zero and earth

The safety regulations (PTB), electrical installations (PUE) and the Code of Practice (SP) for the production of electrical work for related industries (for example, construction) unambiguously regulate the color of the insulation of only ground wires - yellow with a green stripe; colors for phase conductors A, B, C and neutral are only recommended. The reason is that in countries where the only acceptable power supply system is an isolated neutral (Germany, Japan, etc.), it is customary to designate phase A in white or light gray. without a hitch" is not always possible.

The chandelier is heavy...

For ceiling lights weighing from 15 kg, fastening on the 1st rod or cord is no longer considered reliable enough. These need to be hung on a chain or rope cradle of 3-4 branches. 1 branch should support the full weight of the luminaire with 3 times the margin.

The cradle is fixed to the ceiling using a triangular or square carrier plate made of steel with a thickness of 5 mm or more, pos. 7 in fig. The number of attachment points is 4 or 5, respectively. An attachment point in the center is mandatory: without it, if one of the corner fixtures is excessively loosened, the mechanical load will “slam” onto the next weakest one, the suspension will break out like a domino and the chandelier will “all of a sudden” collapse.

Corner attachment points should be located on a conditional circle (red dotted line) with a diameter in centimeters of at least 0.85 of the weight of the chandelier in kilograms. In any case, the smallest distance between the centers of the holes in concrete ceiling should be from 9 of their diameters, as with a 2-point suspension on a bar, see above. Eyelets or hooks under the branches of the cradle are welded to the carrier plate. Homemade eyelets can be made from 6mm wire rod.

… and ultralight

Fans make a lot of lamps from disposable plastic tableware, PET bottles and paper. Their weight is negligible, therefore, firstly, it is permissible to mount the cartridge in the lampshade / ceiling lamp from the same kebab sticks, see fig. In this case, the cartridge is taken E17 or E10 with lugs, see fig. left. The "ears" of the cartridge with the help of a sewing needle are simply wound to the crosshairs of the sticks with threads, thin copper wire or fishing line.

Secondly, the suspension of an ultralight lamp can also be made cradle, but from a fishing line. Its branches are inserted into the ceiling cap along with the cable, as for a chandelier on a cord. Such a suspension is almost invisible. If the cable (recall, it should not be stretched anywhere, squeezed or pressed down) is twisted or twisted into a spiral, then an ignorant guest may at first be dumbfounded: levitation? telekinesis? superconductor and magnets?

Floor lamp

A floor lamp based on the same design and technological principles is, in general, an inverted chandelier on a rigid rod with some differences, pos. 3 in fig. above with fixture designs. First: the bar (which is already a stand) is made of a steel pipe with an inner diameter of 10 mm and a wall thickness of 1.5 mm. Ring - galvanized from 0.7 mm. Second: all joints of steel parts are soldered.

Further, in the lower support of the floor lamp, a sufficiently heavy and extensive structure should be provided for attaching the bottom of the rack. Under the floor lamp of the usual type, a cross will go from about 450x450 mm from an oak beam 100x100 mm. A blind hole with a depth of 75-80 mm is drilled in the center of it along the outer diameter of the rack, and glued into the socket mounting adhesive. Also glue the rack into the shelf of the floor lamp. It will be useful, both in design and strength, to apply a polished washer with a diameter of 60 mm and a thickness of 2 mm (steel) or 4 mm (aluminum) on the glue. The described design allows the amateur to do without custom-turned parts in the manufacture of a floor lamp.

Desk lamp

A working table lamp based on our principles of construction is even simpler than a floor lamp, pos. 4: a sufficiently massive and durable base (wood, plastic) with a stepped through hole along the axis. A lampshade ring is laid on the step and fastened with self-tapping screws. Then at the same time it will press the whiskers of the lampshade extensions and it will not hang out.

Note: for the base table lamp from ceramic or glassware, you need to make a pommel-knob with a stepped hole mounted on its neck. The most suitable material for this is plastic.

For outdoor lighting

Let's leave outdoor lamps for 220 V purchased: it is impossible to make a "forever" sealed cable gland for mains voltage and also a sealed case with glass at home. We will work with voltages up to 12 V, then the cable entry is quite simple, see fig. And if the light source is powered from a current stabilizer, then no short circuit will be scary.

However, things may not come to electricity: for temporary lighting in the garden or at a picnic and in the 21st century, an ordinary candle is often more convenient and cheaper, it is also more romantic. And you can make a candle lantern with your own hands from coffee can in just a few minutes, see the video:

Video: do-it-yourself candle lantern from a coffee can

Such a lamp is suitable for a light bulb; then there is no need for ventilation holes and the carrying handle can be fixed on the lid, which is more secure.

A permanent outdoor lamp should already be electric. The main problem with this is reliable sealing. Here again, glassware with a screw-on lid comes to the rescue: an outdoor lamp works well from a can. In this case, since a more powerful light source is required, it is better to take a vessel from under conservation. The cable entry pipe is made by breaking through the cover with a round pointed rod. For complete tightness, aquarium silicone is applied once and for all to the rim of the lid from the inside before screwing.

The lamp "once and for all" involves the use of very reliable and durable light sources. Requirements for its quality and spectrum fade into the background, because. illuminates non-residential or working room. Given these conditions, an outdoor lamp on the porch or, say, at the entrance to the garage, is best made from led strip: with a negligible consumption of electricity, it will give quite bright lighting. An example of the manufacture of such a lamp, see:

Video: do-it-yourself garden lamp in 15 minutes

In the garden and in general on the site, high brightness of lighting is no longer needed, here, in general, if only not to get off the path and see the door to the bathhouse, cellar, barn or bathroom. On the other hand, it is very, very desirable to have a garden lamp autonomous: here the point is not the cost of electricity, but the cable, and who would like to make trenches in a well-groomed area?

Garden lights powered by solar panels (SB) and a buffer battery (battery) are commercially available, but they are either expensive or short-lived. Let's try to figure out whether it is possible to do it on our own, especially since it is quite possible:

• 4 white LEDs with a current of 20 mA each in a lampshade made of milky glass or a frosted plastic bottle, more or less acceptable for garden needs, will illuminate a circle with a diameter of 4-5 m. With a current of 10 mA each, you can still see in the light spot where the stone is, and where is the pit. Total average 60 mA.
• The battery, taking into account the weak recharging in winter and the decrease in capacity in the cold, should give the maximum current of the illuminators for at least 30 hours. Finger batteries for 2500-3500 mAh, frost-resistant up to -20, are on sale. We take the minimum allowable battery capacity of 2500 mAh.
• Voltage drop across the luminous diode approx. 2 V. In order to stabilize the total current consumption and the battery discharge mode, on which its resource significantly depends, we give twice as much to the quenching resistors, for a total battery voltage we get 6 V.
• The SB, taking into account the energy efficiency of the Ni-Cd battery of 74%, should give a current of approx. 75 mA. Based on the winter in the middle latitudes, we take a rated current of 100 mA.
• Also, taking into account the efficiency of the battery in terms of energy and voltage losses during charging, we take the SB voltage of 9 V.
• In order for the battery resource not to fall from overcharging, the recharge current through it should not be more than 5% of the hourly discharge current. With a battery capacity of 2500 mAh and a short circuit current of 100 mA, this condition is met, even more so with a 3500 mAh battery. That is, instead of an expensive and complex charge controller, you can simply put a silicon rectifier diode.

A diagram of an autonomous garden lamp, built taking into account the described conditions, is shown in the figure:

Despite its simplicity, the battery in it is never brought to degradation of the active medium due to overcharging, and only in exceptional cases can it reach a deep discharge; therefore, its resource remains normal when operating in harsh temperature conditions. "Zest" here - SB. Their internal resistance is large and non-linear, according to a power law, grows with increasing load current, as a result of which the short-circuit current of the SB is only slightly greater than the nominal one. From this point of view, it is more profitable to use less expensive polysilicon SBs in this circuit.

The CU control device closes the switch S when the SB voltage drops to the "twilight" level. VD1 will close by then and the battery will stop charging. It is connected to the battery only for power supply. Switch - diode or transistor optocoupler or electromagnetic relay; in this case, the reed switch is better, because a conventional one with a low voltage coil will take more current than all LEDs. In this case, it is impossible to use a thyristor optocoupler as an S: in order for the opened thyristor to close, the current through it must drop to a very small value, almost to zero. Since the current is constant here, the thyristor, once opened, will not “quiet” until the battery is completely planted.

About aquarium lighting

For lighting aquariums, special linear fluorescent lamps are used. Not like flower shelf phytolamps: the spectrum of aquarium lamps is tailored to the optical properties of water and the needs of life aquatic plants. Both lamps are unsuitable for general lighting of premises: the light that favors photosynthesis is by no means always useful for human vision.

A chandelier is an expensive item, but technologically not so complicated. In any case, production processes that could not be carried out at home are almost not required for the manufacture of a chandelier, or they can be replaced with similar manual ones, visually and in terms of reliability giving the same effect.

Do-it-yourself amateurs have made and are making a lot of ceiling lamps for general lighting (and these are chandeliers), which have no analogues in the wide market and sometimes have a very extravagant appearance, see, for example, fig. Fiction and the reader, we hope, do not hold. However, unfortunately, in a scattering of images of home-made chandeliers on the Internet, samples that meet the requirements of safety regulations and residential lighting are rare. Rather, very rarely.

This article discusses, first of all, how to make a chandelier yourself technologically and lighting. There is nothing particularly complicated here; this is something like a Moliere character who, it turns out, has been speaking prose all his life. But it doesn't hurt to know some of the basics. Moreover, the original harmonious design (which is by no means abandoned) also requires a reliable foundation, otherwise what beauty can be based on?

Note: for example, how you can make a chandelier in the living room with your own hands at home, see the video below. In terms of design, it will go with any interior style that accepts clear forms, and this is a very wide range, from Chinese Mandarin to fusion.

Video: do-it-yourself chandelier from improvised materials

Therefore, the subtleties of the design and construction of the main lighting and at the same time decorative elements chandeliers -; frame / support of lamps, which are also important as part of the overall design -. It will also not be superfluous to find out about the general lighting design of residential premises. And in this article we will deal with what they all have in common, plus the electrical part:

• Lighting technology and design - the very beginnings for domestic premises;
• Electrical fittings, mainly in terms of safety;
• What to make light fittings from, with an emphasis on the possibility of manufacturing from improvised materials;
• Features of chandeliers for residential premises for various purposes;
• The choice of light sources for a particular chandelier.

Note: those who doubt why there are some depths, let it be known - homemade lamps are firmly in the top ten for household electrical injuries, fire hazard and as a cause of visual impairment, especially in children.

What should not be afraid?

Wood and woodwork. Looking for curly wooden details industrial chandeliers, it seems that it is impossible to reproduce them at home. Meanwhile, a completely artsy wooden chandelier frame can be made in a day or two with your own hands in the kitchen or on the balcony.

The fact is that wood, when heated throughout the mass to 150-250 degrees, softens and bends, and when it cools down, it retains the shape given to it. You can heat a piece of wood to such a temperature without charring with a building hair dryer. Just remember to pre-drill axial holes (say, for wiring an electrical cable), this will not be possible in an already bent part.

Note: light or medium-density fine-layered wood bends most easily when heated - birch, maple, ash, linden. Bamboo and some breeds tropical tree bend generally heated to 90-100 degrees by steaming in water vapor. MDF, due to the uniformity of its structure, bends very well and precisely, but requires more heat.

Finally, quite elegant wooden chandelier can be made of non-bent parts: modern light sources make it possible to implement such a solution. Then the ceiling lamp is made in the form of a chandelier-plafond, see below.

What to pay attention to?

On old Soviet chandeliers and household lamps in general. The USSR, as you know, was a very ambiguous phenomenon, which was especially clearly expressed in Soviet consumer goods. If you have an old “soviet-made” home chandelier lying around in your closet, then its light-scattering / light-transmitting parts are probably made of high-quality glass, and porcelain / faience decorative ones are made of the same high-quality material. Let 1 "horn" out of 4-5 be broken, the remaining ones will be enough for a new home-made chandelier. Has the paint peeled off? Now on sale there are any washes and excellent acrylic enamels. Some of the "pendants" are lost? Of the others, you can also build something very beautiful, it would be fiction and taste.

Lighting and vision

Approximately 10 years ago, the transmission capacity was measured quite accurately according to the information of the optic nerve. It turned out to be 5-6 times less than the amount of information in the picture that the optical system of the eye draws on the retina, and scientists finally had to admit it as a fact: somewhere in the eye lurks something like a video processor. Suspicions about its presence arose 200 years ago, because. certain visual illusions do not depend in any way on the physical and mental state of the subject. I had to admit, and now it is confidence that the picture does not come to the brain raw, but somehow processed. From the point of view of lighting engineering and the influence of the nature of lighting on health and well-being, this fact is also important: a good lamp should give light not only bright enough, but also even, soft, allowing you to clearly distinguish details of different colors and not tiring the eye.

Note: Let us remind the reader that the picture on the retina is taken by 2 types of photoreceptors - rods and cones. The former are the most sensitive, but perceive only the general brightness, so at night all cats are gray. Cones of 3 types perceive separately the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) parts of the color spectrum. We also recall that the eye is most sensitive to green rays, somewhat less to red and least to blue.

Spectra of light sources

Light with a continuous spectrum is the least tiring for the eye, pos. 1 per pic: All visible details of the subject are more or less evenly lit. If the spectrum is limited, then those that do not fall into it are simply not visible. The eye processor does not need to “finish” anything, and this is what most of all tires the eyesight and spoils it.

The fact is that in order to “finish” a poorly distinguishable optics of the eye, it must constantly and often refocus, and the photodetector system must change its accommodation, i.e. general level of sensitivity. This procedure is in some way similar to working out the details in Photoshop by normalizing the levels and “pulling up” the thin curves, but those who know how to do this know that the picture is very sluggish initially, if you definitely need to “pull out” the details, it coarsens to “tear”. And if it's about own vision, the brain eventually begins to understand "tear" as the norm, accordingly reconfigures the muscles of the eye and the algorithms of the visual processor, which leads to visual impairment.

Unfortunately, from those suitable for safety requirements for living conditions light sources give a continuous spectrum only incandescent, conventional and halogen lamps. Firstly, they are uneconomical according to modern requirements. Secondly, their spectra are thermal and therefore have a strong cutoff in the blue region. That is, it is impossible to achieve the correct color perception under such lighting.

Nevertheless, incandescent lamps in household lamps are quite applicable: over millions of years of evolution, the human eye has become accustomed to correcting itself for yellowness, and visual disturbances in such lighting are possible only from its insufficient or excessive brightness. As for sodium lamps, shining only in the yellow region, then their light is also harmless to vision, but there is no need to talk about any adequate color perception.

Almost perfect color reproduction allows, with the least possible visual fatigue, to achieve a synthetic or additive spectrum, pos. 2. There is no need for the eye processor to overwork: the tops of the R, G and B zones go slightly beyond the optimal illumination level for a given overall brightness, and at their junctions, restoring full detail requires a simple addition of partial (private) images in the corresponding colors. As a result, the overall white level comes out almost linear and the details of any color are clearly visible, and gray tones smoothly transition into each other.

And again unfortunately: the additive spectrum is given only by the screens of good cathode ray tubes (kinescopes). Fluorescent lamps (housekeepers) with a 3-4 layer phosphor, individual samples of LED illuminators and TFT display screens will slowly but surely approach it, however, the problem is still far from being completely solved. Therefore, experienced and caring about their vision (which in this case is also the main working tool) graphic designers, photographers and artists working at a computer stubbornly hold on to “tube” displays, buying professional ones at crazy prices or looking for used ones with not yet dead tube.

Note: light from sources with an additive spectrum is usually called extremely soft. In nature, extremely soft lighting is morning with light cloudiness, when the disk of the Sun shines a little through the clouds.

In everyday life, acceptable softness of light can be achieved by its sources with an island spectrum, pos. 3. It looks like 3 solid limited ones, but this is the case when quantity turns into quality: having seen 3 zones of primary colors, the eye will definitely try to see what is between them. In the gaps between the islands, something is still visible, albeit at a level of illumination that is significantly less than optimal for a given accommodation. The peaks of the islands are also quite strongly lifted up, but also within the acceptable range.

The island spectrum is given by most housekeepers and good LED lamps; how to distinguish them immediately upon purchase from, let's say, not very good ones, see below, in the section on illuminators. It is undesirable to do work that requires eye strain in such a light, but you can read / write 3-4 hours a day.

The island spectrum has 2 features important for household lighting. The first is that it can be significantly softened with the help of light-shaping devices, see below. The second is that the "tails" of red and blue do not go into the IR (infrared) and UV (ultraviolet) regions, but fall to black towards the boundaries of the visible spectrum. Therefore, if the details of a certain color in island lighting are poorly visible, increasing the overall brightness will only harm your eyesight. In this case, it is necessary to use local lighting with incandescent lamps or housekeepers / LEDs of a different color temperature, their spectrum islands will be located differently.

The most harmful spectrum for vision is the line spectrum, pos. 4. In it, firstly, very narrow zones of primary colors do not overlap. Secondly, in order to create a sufficient overall brightness, it is necessary to “pull up” the peaks of the lines, especially the blue one, above the maximum allowable. The light seems to be not very bright, but it hurts the eyes. Everything in general is visible, it seems to be good, but the details are lost somewhere and you can’t make out in any way, even if your eyes burst.

Such light is called extremely hard. It is given by cheap LED lamps and individual models of housekeepers with a 1-layer phosphor. It is impossible to soften it with light formers, because. nothing is illuminated in the gaps between the lines. With prolonged use of such light, it is possible to develop not only myopia / farsightedness, but also various color perception disorders (the eye processor is overstrained to no avail, trying to see the invisible), and even retinal detachment.

Electrical fittings

Gross and most often entailing undesirable consequences violation of the safety rules in the independent manufacture of chandeliers - hanging them by an electric cable: its end is passed into the bulb holder, tied in a knot, so everything is kept on weight. A chandelier, even the lightest, must be hung on a separate rod, rigid or flexible.

The rigid suspension of a chandelier is known to everyone: it is a tube into which a cable is stretched. Traditional flexible suspension - chain; the cable in this case passes through the links. Now there are special cables for chandeliers on sale, in addition to 3 wires under a common sheath, they also have a strong rope for hanging. It needs to be brought out and fastened in 2 places: at the top to the hook and at the bottom to the frame of the chandelier, otherwise the cord may crawl out over time and the chandelier will hang on the wires. When hanging on a separate cord, the cable must be circled around it with several turns (and not vice versa!) And fix the ends of the “snake” with tape or, not tightly, with a soft thread.

Emergency situations with chandeliers most often occur at the point where the wires are inserted into the bulb holder, so the cartridges also need to be fixed on the frame separately. The most convenient for this is the E17 cartridge for a minion lamp (candle lamp) with a screw clamp for the mounting lamella (shown by the arrow in pos. 1 of the figure). If the frame is made of tubes, the lamellas are obtained by flattening their ends. Lamellas from a strip of steel 1-1.5 mm thick and 10 mm wide can be attached to a wooden frame with small self-tapping screws.

Cartridges E17 with end clamp (shank), pos. 2, for home master less convenient, because the clamp is fixed with a pair of nuts, under which the thread must be cut on the tube. If there is enough space in the chandelier, in this case it is better to use the E27 cartridge (regular, “plump”) with a side clamp, pos. 4. Clamps, to obtain the desired orientation of the lamps, can be carefully folded. And, finally, in chandeliers with a single light bulb, it may be more convenient to have an E17 or E10 cartridge (superminion) with lugs for mounting, pos. 5, but the places where the wires are connected to this should be carefully insulated.

Note: conventional E27 bakelite cartridges can also be fixed rigidly; for this, there is a special thread in the inlet fittings of their covers. But the same thread must be on the tube to which the cartridge is attached, and there are no manual taps for sale for it.

About installation and connection

You can power a chandelier with a total power of up to 60 W from the network with a cable with a cross section of conductive wires of 0.35 square meters. mm; up to 120 W - 0.5 sq. mm; up to 300 W - 0.75 sq. mm. Use a 3-core double-insulated cable. A “ground” (yellow with a longitudinal green stripe) wire is connected to the neutral wire of the network, and the remaining 2 wires are connected to the phase wires coming from the switches of the chandelier sections.

Note: it is unacceptable to search for a phase using a control light by clicking switches! You need to use a phase indicator!

Connecting wires to the terminal blocks of lamp holders and generally wiring the chandelier is done below step by step in the following order:

1. They make sure with the help of a phase indicator that there is no voltage on the wires and no one can accidentally flip the switch. To do this, their levers can be temporarily sealed with tape.
2. From the ceiling ends of the cable, a temporary hut is thrown to the floor from a cable with conductors no smaller than that of a standard section.
3. They strip the ends of the regular wires of the chandelier, connect its common input to the temporary hut. Don't forget to insulate the connections!
4. Disassemble the cartridge.
5. Insert the end of the cable into the cover of the cartridge through the regular hole.
6. A lock washer is put on it to prevent accidental pulling out of the cartridge. IN last resort- tie the cable into a knot.
7. Close the bare ends of the wires into the terminals. Stranded wires are twisted before termination and, preferably, tinned so that the veins that have come out do not arrange a short circuit (short circuit),
8. Insert the terminal block into the cover, seating it with notches on the corresponding protrusions in it.
9. Check if there is a small loop of cable under the cover and if it is pulled out.
10. Holding the terminal block so that it does not come off, the cartridge case is screwed onto the cover.
11. At the end of the installation of the section, the lamps are screwed in, checked by turning on the acc. switch, whether they burn steadily.
12. Again, the switches are blocked from accidental switching on, the temporary hut is removed.
13. , connect its input to the ceiling ends.
14. They check: it burns steadily, does not blink - the installation is over, you can use it.

Light fittings

The light fixture of the chandelier (light-forming system), firstly, directs the light in the proper way for this type of room. Secondly, it softens it by reducing the surface brightness of the illuminator. And for light sources with an island spectrum, another favorable circumstance manifests itself.

In school and even general university courses in optics, in order not to confuse students too much, it is believed that during scattering, reflection and refraction of light, its frequency remains unchanged; this makes it possible to visually deduce their basic laws. In fact, there are no absolutely linear media, and a certain fraction of light quanta in these processes is re-emitted, due to which it changes its frequency and, consequently, its color. That is, the "tails" of the spectral islands receive a small brightness "feed", which facilitates the work of the eye processor; this is tantamount to an additional softening of the light.

Workflows

In the light fittings of household lamps, diffuse reflection and light scattering are mainly used. Mirroring is of little use, since does not by itself reduce surface brightness or soften light. Refraction in transparent media is widely used: crystal pendants not only give a pleasant play of light, but also significantly soften it without significant loss of light flux. And finally, in some cases, eg. in lampshades made of threads, in the formation of a light flux, a noticeable share of diffraction takes place.

Note: with diffraction and shadows, in general, you need to be more careful. The light in the room on the left in the figure can cause a nervous breakdown in an adult, and the prickly rays from the lamp on the right in the same place will not benefit vision. Here the circumstance takes place that in the peaks of the diffraction pattern the light intensity can be much higher than on the primary radiating surface.

Forming elements and systems

The softening of light and the formation of its necessary directivity pattern (DN), see below, using refraction in transparent media and/or specular/total internal reflection requires a large number of such optical acts: in each of them, the light loss is small, but the degree of light conversion is also small. flow, because transparent media are transparent because their non-linearity manifests itself to an insignificant degree. Traditionally, this requires a lot of refractive elements with high optical properties; hence expensive or available on a case-by-case basis. Now amateur masters are rescued by plastics: the original chandelier on refraction and re-reflections can be made in general from waste material, see below. The appearance of such chandeliers is “airy”; service life - 1-3 years.

If there are no crystal pendants at your disposal, you will have to use scattering and diffuse reflection. Light losses will be greater, but in this case it is possible to get by with improvised materials: it is enough to get only 1-3% of nonlinear optical acts in the entire lighting system. An ordinary light meter with a set of light filters does not capture such a number of “left” quanta, but it is enough for the illumination of the dips between the islands of the spectrum to rise above the “bottom” of the accommodation range and the eye to work without overworking.

Light formers based on diffuse optical processes are based on 3 elements: a ceiling lamp, a lampshade and a diffuse reflector. Plafond, pos. 1 in fig. - a cap made of frosted glass or a material similar to it in terms of optical properties. Outward light from it can come out only after undergoing scattering. For the further formation of the light flux, the optical properties of the room do not matter or have very little.

Lampshade, pos. 2, part of the primary light emits without conversion; not necessarily down. The softening of the primary light spot is achieved by illuminating it with diffused light reflected from the walls and ceiling, so the optical properties of the room in this case are significant. They become decisive for a diffuse reflector, pos. 3, however, this lighting system, by changing the degree of transparency of the reflector(s), their size, configuration and location, makes it possible to form various patterns.

Chandelier lighting systems are built, as a rule, by combining elementary shapers. For example, at pos. 4 - a well-known chandelier of stepped concentric lampshades, complemented by a small almost flat shade. At first glance, the light loss in it should be large, but remember: to illuminate a school gym with an area of ​​​​approx. 400 sq. m and with a ceiling height of 6 m, uneconomical incandescent lamps were enough for a total power of 800-1200 watts.

Among the new lighting systems stand out chandeliers, plafonds, pos. 3. They are named so because they are both ceiling lamps and lighting, and architectural ceiling, see photo. The essence of this type of optics is that in the trap chamber, the primary quanta experience multiple reflections and the light comes out strongly softened.

Materials for lighting systems

About purchased elements of chandeliers made of glass or special plastics, you can see that:

• Glass should be mirrored, colorless or pure white when broken.
• Under any light sources, except for incandescent lamps, it is better to take optical parts that are matted not from the surface, but in bulk, the so-called. dairy, the desired degree of transparency.
• It is undesirable to use acrylic computer disks in lighting systems: the translucent metal layer in them only absorbs light to no avail, and almost completely transparent and colorless optical acrylic does not noticeably transform the light flux.

Good homemade chandeliers obtained from food grade PET bottles. The refractive index and transparency of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) are quite high, which makes it possible to achieve a significant softening of light with small light losses. PET bottles are produced in various color shades and are translucent, thanks to which the chandelier can be built on the basis of both refraction and re-reflections, as well as diffuse processes.

In addition to low cost and availability, a significant advantage of PET is the ease of processing at home and, in skillful hands, good decorative qualities. For example, how to make flowers from bottles, see the master class at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TXXoiTLhVA

Floral decor will not only decorate the chandelier, but also, due to the increase in the number of refractive surfaces, will significantly improve its lighting technology. Other variants of optically useful and beautiful decor from plastic bottles, but we will leave them for the article on lampshades.

Other plastics for chandeliers with economy lamps are also suitable as reflectors. For them, you need to take the material as white as possible and slightly rough or with a satin gloss. translucent details from household plastics not very good, because as a filler, chalk or talc with coloring additives is most often used. The light loss in such will be large, and the softening of light - only due to a drop in surface brightness. It is preferable to use propylene, because. PVC from light soon turns yellow and becomes brittle.

The second one is very good available material for the optical system of the chandelier - paper. If the lamp is LED, then a paper chandelier with it will last for several years: the paper turns yellow and loses light transmission from heat and UV exposure, which LED lamps almost or completely do not give.

The light transmission of the paper components of the chandelier is selected by choosing a material of the appropriate density, from 20 to 220 g/sq. m. The reflective properties of modern writing paper are almost flawless: with a whiteness factor below 0.8-0.85, it is simply not produced. By the way, some cunning manufacturers operate with whiteness factors of 1.05 and even 1.15. By what method of measurement they reach super-unit values ​​of a quantity that, in principle, cannot be more than 1, who knows. But from the point of view of physics, this is ridiculous absurdity: I put such a leaf in front of a mirror, between them - solar battery, once shone a flashlight, here you are perpetual motion machine II kind. Or a fertile topic of discussion on the forums of technomists. What's wrong with that? Since KB>1, then the leaf of light and, accordingly, its energy radiates more than it receives.

Note: The bulb of a 60 W incandescent lamp can heat up to more than 100 degrees Celsius. Therefore, for chandeliers with shades, lampshades and reflectors made of plastic, fabric, textiles and threads, incandescent lamps of no more than 40 W should be used, and halogen lamps - up to 15-20 W.

Video: a master class on making a chandelier from a rope or thread

Chandelier in the room

The main types of DN for lighting domestic premises are shown in fig. A cardioid is formed by a ceiling, this is a light for small bedrooms, children's rooms, hallways. The dip at the top is formed by the shadow from the base. A children's chandelier should be equipped with a spherical shade, strong, but without excessive light loss, scattering light. Particularly soft and, highly desirable, shadow-free lighting in the nursery is necessary so as not to harm the eyesight that has not yet been strengthened. Therefore, the ceiling of a children's chandelier is best made of paper, and refractive materials for it should be avoided.

Figure-of-eight DN is obtained using several diffuse reflectors and a well-bleached ceiling, for example. drywall. Such light is needed in a fairly large living room with free space in the center, an office, and other rooms where zones are illuminated by local light sources.

A fan DN gives a simple lampshade, and a petal one, directed upwards with an aperture (bell). Petal lamps are typical for sconces, which are not quite in the subject here, but chandeliers with fan lamps are suitable for a small living room with a dining table in the center or the kitchen. Especially for the latter: light contributes to the deposition of vapors of organic substances and their bituminization in the liquid phase, so there is no need to illuminate the ceiling here, let the potential soot go into the hood.

Note: the most uniform illumination of the floor area with minimum flow electricity for lighting gives the so-called. cosecant-square DN. However, it turns out with the help of very complex lighting fixtures, walls and ceilings need to be illuminated separately. It is mainly used for lighting large industrial premises, open areas, sports facilities, etc.

Chandelier lamps

Not all manufacturers of household lighting lamps give their spectral characteristics on their websites and in specifications, so sellers most often do not know them. As for economy lamps, it’s easier for an ignorant buyer here: the spectrum is unknown - We take on a color temperature of 4300 K. In the worst case, we get a continuous bounded spectrum. He will not let you see in all its glory a color postcard or an illustration in a book, but it will not hurt your eyesight. Visually, this light is almost white with a slight yellowness. The norm of electric power of such lamps is 1.8-3.4 W per 1 sq. m of illuminated area depending on the configuration and overall tone of the room design.

Note: phytolamps for shelves with flowers, greenhouses / greenhouses and aquariums cannot be used for general lighting. Their spectrum is sharply lined, it is useful for plants for photosynthesis, but not for humans for vision.

LED lamps are selected, firstly, for a color temperature of 2800-3300 K, yellowish. In whites, the spectrum, as a rule, is lined, which is immediately noticeable: their light hurts the eyes even in a naturally well-lit trading floor. According to visible design features, one should choose globe lamps with a frosted bulb and its deep shank, pos. 1 in fig. If you liked the “corn” lamp, then you need to be guided by the following signs of poses. 2:

• The LED assembly must be covered with a translucent bulb, this guarantees, first of all, the durability of the lamp. "Naked corn", with luminous structures under protective film, sensitive to pollution and external influences in general.
• The number of individual radiating structures should be at least 15-20.
• "Kochan", i.e. the shell-holder of radiating structures must be transparent. In combination with prev. this will give a greater number of reflections inside the bulb, greater uniformity of the primary light and better possibilities for the formation of a light flux.

In order not to “get” on the line spectrum, one should also avoid imitations of globes and “corn” in the form of light bulbs with a transparent bulb sitting right on the base and a small number of radiating structures, pos. 3. The illumination from them in a small room and visually will be uneven, and the spectrum is most often lined. Also, LED directional lamps, pos. 4. They are intended for auxiliary / service lighting and are harmful to the eyes during prolonged use.

Indoor chandelier is not only lighting fixture. Without exaggeration, we can say that she is the main decoration of the room. Handmade items are considered especially valuable. This allows you to highlight the special taste of the owners of the home, as well as an outstanding and creative mind. Of course, this type of work is quite complex and requires increased concentration. But at the same time, when creating decorations for your home, you can find many interesting and extraordinary solutions in it!

This article presents some ideas for decorating a chandelier with your own hands, as well as instructions for them. Everything is written so simply and clearly that anyone can do what they have planned at home.

In order to make a chandelier, sometimes they use the most unusual materials. For example, everyone is already familiar with glass or wood, plastic, and so on. But sometimes, when you want something completely “unusual”, both wooden skewers and glass bottles out of wine, and cans, and all kinds of tree branches, and cardboard, and even straw. You need to choose depending on the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe creator and on the wishes of the owners of the apartment. It is also necessary to take into account the general interior of the room where the finished product is supposed to be placed.

An interesting idea for a chandelier made of plastic spoons

Plastic disposable spoons are one of the simplest and most readily available materials for creating a chandelier for a room. Their advantages are low price, a variety of colors and such material will last for quite a long time. To create such an extraordinary chandelier, you will need a minimum of investments, both physical and material.

Materials:

• empty bottle of drinking water, 5 liters;
• plastic spoons (their number depends on the size of the bottle);
• glue for plastic;
• an old chandelier (or rather, a cartridge from it);
• sharpened knife.

Process of creation:

1. First you need to prepare a plastic bottle for the next step. Remove the label in advance, cut off the bottom, dry well.
2. Then you need to get the plastic spoons out of the package and carefully cut off unnecessary handles with a knife, leaving about 2-3 centimeters above the level of the "scoop".
3. You need to glue the “scoops” blanks to the base of the bottle. Apply a large amount of glue to the left "tail" and press it to the surface (with the convex side of the spoon out). It is necessary to cover the entire bottle in a circle until the entire perimeter is occupied by plastic "spoons". It is advisable to arrange them in a checkerboard pattern and slightly move them together. This will leave fewer "free spots".
4. From the old unnecessary chandelier you need to remove the cartridge, and then place it in an already glued and dried bottle and fix it on the frame.
5. A decorative bowl can also be made from plastic spoons: stick "scoops" around the neck of the eggplant.
6. Install and connect the chandelier, check its operation.

Note! The option of decorative painting or painting of spoons in absolutely any color is possible. Thus, your product will look even more beautiful and more original!

Chandelier made of plastic bottles in the form of leaves

Another unusual option a chandelier made in the form of leaves will serve in the interior. It is created from simple plastic bottles, the variety of colors of which allows you to work in the most unusual colors and embody the most daring ideas.

Process of creation:

1. Cut plastic bottles on blanks shaped like future leaves.
2. Each blank has to finally fix the shape of the sheet.
3. With a soldering iron with a thick tip and a one-sided bevel, you need to slightly fuse the sections of each leaf in order to give the future product the greatest effect.
4. In the same way, thanks to the soldering iron, you need to give the blanks a sheet structure. You need to act very carefully and accurately, because you can easily make a hole in the plastic. Such a leaf with outlined contours of veins and slightly fused edges will look complete.
5. With a hot needle at the "leg" of each leaf, you need to melt several holes in order to attach them.
6. Thanks to a thin wire, form branches and screw them to a steel wire frame.

Also great idea will be manufacturing new chandelier in the form of a ceiling lamp for a floor lamp or a lamp on the table. Thus, it will be a great addition to the previous product!

Chandelier with paper butterflies

The most common version of the product is a chandelier with butterflies. And this is no accident. To begin with, this option looks luxurious and expensive, and secondly, its manufacture does not require special physical costs. Thus, even a child can participate in the creation of a chandelier.

Process of creation:

1. The basis is either an old chandelier or a similar frame. If this is not available, then you can take the simplest wooden or metal rim. If there is no such material, then, as an option, you can take a thick wire and make about 2-3 skeins, so that a circle forms.
2. Cut paper butterflies according to the pattern. You need to take a butterfly template and fit it to the desired size. The option also looks very unusual when butterflies of several sizes are located on the chandelier at once (again, depending on desire). Transfer the outlines to paper and carefully cut out, preferably with a sharpened clerical knife, or small non-rounded scissors. The material for the templates themselves is better to use dense, not very dirty and does not attract dust. For example, velvet paper is very bad for a product, because in the future you will need to vacuum the chandelier quite often.
3. Take a thread from a nylon or a transparent fishing line and attach butterflies to it. You can attach it in two ways: either pierce the bodies of butterflies, or stick them on silicone glue.
4. Next, we attach threads with butterflies to the base of the frame and decorate it.
5. You can also try interesting option if you make a wire ball! It should be based on a suspension from a chandelier and placed on it with the help of glue gun several patterns of butterflies.

fabric chandelier

This chandelier is also based on the frame. As in the previous version, either old metal frames or dense wire are suitable for its manufacture.

After you have pre-prepared the base, proceed to cutting out the fabric from which the lampshade will be made in the future. How long will it be ready product, depends on your desire, however, it should be borne in mind that the width of the fabric must be the same as the diameter of the frame! Once you have finished the pattern, you need to try on.

Another nuance is that the top of the fabric will need to be sewn directly on the frame, which means that it (the frame) must be solid. Otherwise, if it is possible to thread it directly into the fabric, then you should first fold the upper edge of the pattern and stitch it, and then iron it. Then we sew a seam on the side of the product.

In order for the lampshade not to lose its shape, due attention should be paid to the material. If the fabric is too light, "airy", then the bottom of the product should be weighted. To do this, you can use cardboard or fishing line.

A neatly sewn fringe, lace or braid will also look beautiful. But do not "overload" the product! The process of making a fabric chandelier is similar to making a lace chandelier. So you can safely experiment with materials that are located on the frame.

Plafond of threads and a balloon

Materials:

• dense threads, such as woolen, cotton, or jute rope - at least 1 meter;
• cartridge;
• petrolatum;
• PVA glue;
• a brush to apply glue and petroleum jelly (it is desirable that the brush does not shed);
• 1 or 2 pieces of balloons (the first to work with it, and the second to check the finished product, if desired);

Process of creation:

1. Inflate the balloon to a certain size, secure. Remember that the finished work will exactly repeat the shape of the ball! With a marker, draw a couple of circles at the top and bottom, in order to determine the boundaries of winding threads.
2. Using a brush, smear the ball around the entire perimeter with petroleum jelly.
3. Pour PVA into a plastic container and thoroughly process the threads with it (It is not advisable to apply glue to the entire length of the threads at once! Treat them as you wind them around the ball!).
4. Given the borders that you applied with a marker, wind the threads around the ball. Do not forget that depending on the density with which you wind, the future appearance products.
5. After winding, you need to leave the product for a day until it dries completely; After complete drying, you need to burst the ball and remove it through the holes.
6. Cut a place at the top and insert the cartridge.
7. In order to be completely sure that the product turned out to be strong, you can insert a ball into it and inflate it. Similarly, you can check the flexibility and reliability of the lampshade.

Alternatively, you can paint the structure with a spray can or acrylic paint, attach all kinds of decorative ornaments to it, such as butterflies, artificial flowers or beads. It's also a great idea to arrange a few balloons in the form of a bunch of grapes and fasten them together.

Wine bottle chandelier

This version of the chandelier is a little more complicated than the previous ones. Making a chandelier for this is quite difficult, the manufacturing process will require accuracy and care. However, you will love the result!

Materials:

• a bottle of wine;
• glass cutter;
• sandpaper for sanding edges;
• cartridge;
• electrical wire;
• metallic or wooden frame, rim.

Process of creation:

1. First you need to prepare the bottle itself for further manipulations with it. The first step is to draw a straight line around the perimeter at the level you need. This is required in order to cut off the bottom of the bottle with a glass cutter;
2. In order not to cut yourself on the glass, you need to grind sharp edges sandpaper;
3. Pull the wire through the neck of the bottle and then connect the cartridge;
4. Attach the bottle to the frame.

You can also decorate the bottle with all kinds of decorative items, or leave it in its original form. In any case, it will look original and spectacular.

The number of products on the frame depends on your desire. You can either leave one bottle, or fix four or more bottles at once.

Chandelier idea from laserdiscs

This idea is great for those who have a large number of laser discs left in the house, and the hand does not rise to throw them away. It is immediately worth noting that the manufacturing options and the result can be very different. It all depends on your imagination and creativity!

Materials:

• two round wooden planks of different thicknesses, and which are slightly larger in diameter than the disks;
• racks made of metal or wood;
• Fluorescent Lamp;
• magnetic switch;
• disks.

Process of creation:

1. Make a hole in a board with a greater thickness and install a starter with a switch in it.
2. Then connect it all to the lamp.
3. String disks on the lamp.
4. Install the racks around the discs and secure the top.

The finished product will delight its owners for a long time, and it does not require special care. It is not advisable to place this type of chandelier in the children's room so that the child cannot harm himself (only if the chandelier hangs out of reach).

Shabby chic chandelier

To create spectacular lighting in the room, you can also make a chandelier from fabric or beads. The result is a kind of chandelier or ceiling in the style of "shabby chic".

Materials:

• a finished metal or wooden frame (or it can be made from an old hoop, garden basket, thick wire);
• cartridge and lamp;
• chains and threads for decoration;
• all kinds of beads and beads.

Working on such a ceiling is not difficult, but it is a very painstaking task. Such chandeliers usually consist of two or three levels of rings, which are located one above the other. It all depends on the size of the selected bases. If you take rings of the same diameter, then the finished product will be made in the Art Nouveau style.

One of important points consists in the fact that before starting the design of the chandelier, you need to paint and wrap the frames with decorative materials!

The approximate consumption of beads is:

• For the lower part of the lampshade - 16 mm beads, about 15-17 pieces per thread;
• For the upper part of the lampshade - 12 mm beads, about 35 pieces per strand.

Naturally, when stringing beads on a thread, you can increase or decrease their number or the degree of thread tension. But it is still desirable to stock up on materials in excess of the norm.

The essence of the work is to hang threads with beads "waterfall" or "cascade" so that they flow down the structure.

In order to make the effect of "muting" the light, you can sheathe the frame with a thick fabric.

A handmade chandelier will definitely bring a fresh touch, originality and beauty to the interior. You will immediately notice how the room will sparkle with new colors, and your guests will sincerely admire your creativity, diligence and original taste!

90 photos of DIY chandelier ideas

There is no doubt that the right lighting in the kitchen sets the tone for the whole interior. A chandelier can become a central element in this cozy and warm room.

Using improvised materials - or even junk - you can make a lampshade from threads, an eco-style lamp from jute twine or plastic bottles, or you can make real masterpiece – beautiful chandelier from wooden or glass beads.

And you can not only hang a lamp made by yourself in the kitchen or in the dining area, but also give it to your loved ones.

Method 1. From improvised materials - everyone can!

The simplest do-it-yourself lamp is made of threads. Indeed, even a child can handle such a design. So, to make a chandelier of threads, we need:

• Threads - you can take ordinary jute twine or thick cotton threads, with a total length of at least 100 meters, the color is chosen based on your imagination and the existing interior;
• PVA glue and a brush for its application;
• Petrolatum;
• 2 balloons - one for work, the second for testing; it is better to take a ball not ordinary, but round, then the shape of the lamp will be the correct shape.

Advice! Also suitable for children Or a rubber beach ball. For very large fixtures, a fitball is suitable, for example.

Work on creating a ball of threads is carried out in the following sequence:

1. Inflate the balloon the right sizes. Do not forget that the resulting lampshade made of threads will repeat the shape of the ball. Draw with a marker one or two circles at the top and bottom (more below).
2. Pour the glue into a container and carefully process the threads. And the ball itself can be coated with Vaseline with a brush.

Advice! Do not immediately apply glue to all the threads - it is better to move along the place of winding.

1. This is followed by winding the threads on the ball, taking into account the drawn holes - it depends on the density of the winding how your lampshade will turn out in the end.

1. After the ball is wrapped, you need to leave the future chandelier to dry for at least 24 hours.
2. The ball bursts and its remains are easily removed from the steel solid construction. As a result, a lampshade made of solid threads was obtained.
3. A hole is cut from above - under the cartridge.
4. It is necessary to check the strength - another ball is inserted into the lamp and inflated. This will demonstrate the flexibility of the design.

In this way, you can also perform local lighting in the kitchen by creating several lamps from threads with your own hands. And you can hang it in the dining area, as shown in the photo.

Do not forget that for a ball of threads you can make additional decor in the form of interesting coloring, beads, butterflies or artificial flowers, or you can make a whole bunch of balls of different sizes.

By the same principle, you can come up with your own unique design lamp. For example, from lace, or a ceiling lamp as in the photo below.

Method 2. Create a masterpiece - you need to try!

Excellent kitchen lighting will turn out if you make a lamp of beads or fabric with your own hands. Get a lamp in style or a real chandelier-chandelier.

For this job you will need:

• Old hoop, garden basket, hanging metal planter, or wire to create a frame;
• Decorative chains;
• Beads, beads, ribbons, strong threads;
• Cartridge with a lamp.

The lamp will be a two- or three-level structure of rings located one above the other and connected by chains or wire.

Rings can be taken different sizes, creating a lampshade in the spirit of vintage classics, or the same - just such lighting is performed in.

The base of the lamp is certainly painted, wrapped or decorated, after which they start stringing beads.

The consumption of beads in this project is as follows:

Lower part: beads with a diameter of 16 mm, 15 pcs. on a thread;

Upper part: beads with a diameter of 12 mm, 31-32 pcs. on a thread.

Here you can vary the degree of tension and the number of threads.

Advice! Work should be carried out by first hanging the chandelier and inserting a cartridge into it.

By analogy, you can create a chandelier made of artificial fruits for the kitchen. And subdued lighting will turn out if you use fabric for covering the frame. As a rule, such a lampshade is made for country styles and.

Method 3. Lamps made from waste materials - for a modern kitchen!

The most original lamp can be made from such waste material as plastic bottles and disposable spoons - it's beautiful, cheap and environmentally friendly!

We make a lampshade in the style of minimalism and - no additional decorations from threads and beads, only matte white or colored plastic. To make such subdued kitchen lighting with your own hands, we need:

• Base made from a 5 liter plastic bottle;
• Cartridge with wire and lamp;
• Glue for high-quality fixation;
• Lots of disposable spoons.

To make a chandelier with your own hands, cut out the bottom of the bottle and cut off the handles of the spoons (not completely, so that a small stalk remains). Using glue, we fix the cut spoons on the base bottle. They need to be placed evenly, in order, then the lampshade will look attractive.

Advice! Each next row is overlapped, without gaps.

The resulting chandelier will resemble fish scales. However, it should be remembered that such a design is quite dense, which means that additional lighting will definitely be needed in the kitchen.

The shape of the lamp can be different, for example, in the form of a lotus.

From disposable spoons you can make such decorations.

A lamp made of plastic bottles, or rather from their bottoms, made by hand, may seem lacy or consisting of many small flowers.

Advice! Such a lampshade can be made not white, but colored - which means that you need to take colored bottles or paint it with paint of the original color: copper, gold, steel, pink, black, etc.

The resulting lampshade can be hung in the kitchen or over the dining table.

Let your kitchen be cozy and bright! We wish you creative success and present some more great ideas for making kitchen lamps with your own hands from improvised means.