Solar Chandelier

By Unitherapy @UniTherapy
A very very long time ago I saw a picture of people having a dinner under a tree with a giant chandelier hanging from it. I absolutely loved the image, and with our new place having a tree in the middle of a field I immediately remembered the chandelier. But wouldn't it be great if when you are having a late summer night dinner, and it was getting dark,  the chandelier could provide just that little light you need to see your plate? Since most trees (except the ones in our living room) don't have a power outlet, we thought of solar power.
The Solar Chandelier has been on our to-think-about-and-to-do-list for some time. So when those garden-stick-in-the-ground solar lights were on sale (99 cents a piece!) we bought a huge stack of them. After that Tom payed a visit to the 2nd hand shop for a chandelier, and we were good to go.
<< Tom coming home with an atrocious beast of a lamp - note the very 3rd Reich double headed eagle on top >> 
After we got off the very ugly Belle and the Beast-esque plastic candles off we cut the cord and screwed off the bolt. We then found out that the bolt was integrated in the vertical metal piece that held op the bulb. That very blot also fixed the copper plate below it, so we had to salvage them all.


And with a little help of our new power tool and the best boyfriend & partner in crime ever, we succeeded in separating the bolts from the bulb fixtures.
 << Yes we can - with pink gloves >>

After screwing on the bolts we had to figure out how to get our solar lights onto the bolts. Luckily the solar lights had a piece of metal tubing connecting them to they ground pin. Tom cut the tubing into pieces and we were able to wiggle them on the bolts. Just for good measure we emptied a tube of super glue into the tubes. As a great tip: use gloves!! Those sharp metal edges cut worse than paper!
              
Finally we popped on the solar lights and hung the chandelier outside. For now it's hanging from out upstairs neighbors balustrade, but soon it will be hanging from our tree!! We can't wait for those long summer suppers!