Creating A Life Studio: mason jars

Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Mason Jar Chandelier

Happy Friday everyone! I realized when I did the post about my daughter's wedding a few days ago I left out a fun project that you DIY-ers might like to see and maybe even try. It was intended to be used for the original wedding plan, but when that changed we no longer had a use for it.

We loved the idea of incorporating mason jars into the wedding decor, and as we scoured the internet for inspiration we came across some images like these:

Source: www.bethhelmstetterblog.com

I knew right away that this was the project I wanted to try. I had a cool old piece of wood that was just waiting to be used for the right thing, and this was it!

Ok, things might get a little sketchy here. I did get a few snapshots of the process, but I wasn't blogging back then so I didn't really document the steps very well. I think you'll get the idea.

That's one of my cute helpers!

The board is 5' long x 11" x 3/4" thick. I decided on 8 jars, and layed them out approximately 10" apart lengthwise and 5" apart width wise. I really don't think I measured at the time, I just eyeballed it until it looked even. I traced around each jar with a pencil and then came the fun part!

Don't freak out, I didn't cut it on the kitchen countertop : )
I should mention here that I didn't own a hole saw bit or the electric drill needed for the power to do the job (my cordless is wimpy), I borrowed them from a friend's husband. These things are definitely on my wish-list to own!

Ideally the plan would be to have the hole be the exact size of metal jar ring. The ring would be glued snugly into the hole. I had seen some plans where the jar itself was glued into the hole and string lights were used. But I wanted to use candles and I wanted the jars to be removable to make it easy to clean and change the candles, etc.

Because the only hole saw bits that were available for me to borrow were a little larger than the jar rings, I ended up having to improvise by gluing the ring snugly to one side of the hole using construction adhesive, and filling the gap with a couple of applications of the same glue, allowing to dry for a full day between applications.

I don't have a photo of what it looks like from the top. It's not pretty, but it hangs high enough that no one can see that.

I drilled two holes on each end of the board and knotted some rough rope through it to hang it from. This is really my favorite sort of project-just wing it and see what happens!

This was a very inexpensive project! I already had the board, the mason jars and the lid rings. I think I spent a couple of dollars on the piece of rope and votive candles and of course I borrowed the hole saw.

About a month ago I decided to paint the board white and change the rope to one a little less rough. It's hard to get a good photo of this thing on my small back porch!

I hate to say it, but I think I liked the rustic board and rope a little better.
Sometimes you just don't know until you try something, right? I would love to make another one of these sometime! Different size? Different configuration? Chain instead of rope? We'll see : )