New Chandelier - A Flower, A Bird Cage?

It's high time to work on that chandelier base I had fabricated a month ago. It will hang over the banquet table that is covered with a 10 x 14 foot patchwork of fabrics salvaged from Hurricane Ike flood waters. I want to carry the theme of the salvaged fabrics up into the chandelier. This afternoon, I cut long bias strips from yet another salvaged length of striped brocade. Sewed a loose machine stitch down the center of the strips and then ruffled them.

Tried wrapping one ruffled length around a portion of the basic structure. Then began to wrap simple lengths of fabric around the bars. I liked both, but both need to be refined and I have to live with the whole thing for a day or two. And what sort of light bulbs will go in this piece. I am now leaning toward those long slender tubes that will mimic stamens in a flower. Maybe the whole thing can look like a flower?

Have no idea how all this will work and I suspect I will disassemble the whole piece many times, give up in despair at least once and then finally, something will look decent or maybe even exciting. When that happens, I'll act quickly with the hope that the chandelier will become wonderful.

At the moment, it's almost embarrassing to show these photographs. There is nothing finished about anything I've tried. It's all thought, concept, experimentation - what works, how to fold, what to ruffle, where to hang the crystals.

I have to keep in mind my friend Virginia Avery's advice: Excess is never enough. This chandelier has to look and feel over the top. I've ordered ornamental feathered birds for this chandelier, thinking they will reference the feral parrots that fly over the East End these days. Also because the basic structure of this chandelier lends itself to the concept of 'bird cage.' Note: I in no way want to cage the feral parrots. Off to bed. I can see this post is deteriorating because of the fatigue of its author.