Thread: My first prop of the season ... Pirate Wagon Wheel Chandelier

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Greetings all,

Just wanted to share my FIRST prop of the season ... I just finished my "Pirate Wagon Wheel Chandelier".

Because I'm expanding my "pirate" display this year, I wanted to get a jump start on prop building and decor. BTW: My wife thinks I am nuts.

Originally I got this wagon wheel to make a pirate ship wheel (the wagon wheel was $12 at K-Mart), but the "thickness" of the wagon wheel (from front to back) was not thick enough to attach good wooden handles to to turn it into a wheel. I didn't want to completely discard the wagon wheel because it was cheap and it looked good ... so I decided to make a chandelier out of it.

Now I know EVERYONE has made PVC candles ... some with battery operated tea-lights and others with C7 Christmas bulb strings with flicker bulbs. The way I make them is a little different because I have experimented with different painting techniques to make them look really aged, ie: spray painting them off-white and then using brown acrylic paint slopped onto it and then wiped off leaving the crevices between the drips and simulated wax darker. I've made hundred of these this way for my cemetery.

PVC pipe candles and hot glue make great fake candles.

But this time around I did something new (well at least new to me, perhaps someone has already done it) that added a really nice effect.

I didn't want to attempt to paint the candles while they were stuck on the wheel, so I wanted to make them removable so I could get the form I wanted so it would fit back on after I detached them to do all the wiring. Trying to paint the candles and all the drips that hang below the wheel would be next to impossible to do properly with the candles attached to the wagon wheel.

I did all the basic candle wax drips to the upper part of each candle without the pvc / candle stuck to the wheel doing all the pre-work on a table top. Any drips that I would do down the sides I would NOT let go past the bottom, ie: I would stop them about 1/2" from the bottom of the candles. Once I got all 8 candle "tops" done, I put blue painters tape on the area on the wheel where they would be attached to.

Now here is the "new" part ... Using a cooking / cookie sheet, I made various lengths of long trails of hot glue. Some in groups of 2-3 and a lot of singles ... basically making lines / rows of hot glue on the cookie sheet. Once they dried, they don't really stick to the cookie sheet and are easy to lift off ... so what you get is what looks like long drips of hot glue.

With the candle loosely in place on the wheel (remember to have the tape under the candle so the candle and hot glue won't stick), I applied a glob of hot glue at the base of each candle and then stuck one end of the long dried hot glue I made on the cookie sheet, and then another and another, and then a big glob on top to make a big blob new drip to hold it all together.

Once dried, I could then remove the candle and the long drips from the wheel and pick off the extra painters tape that may have gotten stuck.

The result is a detachable candle with drips about a foot long that I could go paint on their own ... and when they were painted they would fit right back onto the wheel and would fit perfectly as if they really looked like all the wax ran down the sides of the candle and extended past the base below the wagon wheel.

I then ran wire around the whole wheel cutting little groves with a Dremel under the candles so the candle would still sit flush with the wheel and not be raised up on top of the wire.

I bought a could of cheap short table legs (see the center of the wheel) and stained them to match the color of the wagon wheel and made a round plug that both the top and bottom legs would screw into above and below the wheel.

Added some eye-hooks and chains and presto .... a Pirate Wagon Wheel Chandelier.

Total build cost: $35 (this is including parts I already had but wanted to include for total price).

I hope you find this info helpful to you ...

-HiRez00

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that is amazing. i love it.

I love the idea about the long drips. I'm gonna have to try that. It looks great!

Wowzers....very cool

that is an awesome chandlier, thanks for sharing.....

awesome!!! love the way you painted them!!

I just love that painting technique you did. Really makes them look old and the long drippings are a nice touch! Great new prop and it looked like you bought the wheel the way it is great work!

That looks like a thousand dollar prop. Awesome job.

Wow! That is a great looking chandlier. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, that is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your pictures and how you did it.