Industrial Chandelier - new armature

I am back to thinking about industrial chandeliers.  I have posted a few times before about them:

Here:

http://maxomoxx.blogspot.com/2011/04/design-idea-industrial-chandelier.html

and here:

http://maxomoxx.blogspot.com/2011/04/design-ideas-industrial-chandelier.html

But I was never quite convinced I was on the right path.  The big pulley I already had was just too big, but I think I have found a perfect gear wheel to use as the armature for my chandelier.  (By the way, I really like the word "armature" - it belongs in poetry or, at the very least, metaphor.)  

And here is a sketch of what I have in mind:

Happily, I picked up a heap of old chandelier crystals at the Santa Cruz flea market last summer.  

Now I just need to figure out how to drill holes in the cast iron pulley so that I can attach the wire loops.

DESIGN IDEA: Surgical Light for a Dining Room

I broke down and bought an old surgical light at BIG NYC on Saturday when I was there picking up stone.  I don't know if I'll manage to use it or if it will end up back at BIG or on craigslist, but it showed too much promise to just leave it behind.  (let me say from the get go, if you don't like this idea then you don't need to respond to this post at all.)  

V's comment when she saw this thing was that it is a little too "on the nose", by which she means that it looks like exactly what it is.  Unlike a lot of repurposed stuff we like, there is no mistaking this for some obscure bit of obsolete industrial detritus just waiting to be re-purposed.  I agree with her, but I still think it looks pretty cool and merits some consideration.

Oh, and the other thing to remember is that our dining table is going to be a heavy slab of wood sitting on this old embalming table base which I blogged about back in May 2011 when I picked it up on ebay (talk about a lack of instant gratification):

So, yeah, this light over that table... a little on the nose maybe.  But I still like it a lot.

It mounts on a track on the ceiling so that, in addition to having a full range of rotation, it can slide back and forth to be centered over wherever the action is.

I love this old label.

This belongs on "indicia of authority".

Obviously I know I'm not the first person to think to re-purpose a big surgical light as a ceiling light, but I have never actually seen it done.  Here are some examples I found on the web:

Boo! Now I want one of these

Above from: http://www.urbanremainschicago.com/hard-to-find-completely-intact-vintage-american-industrial-cook-county-hospital-double-arm-articulating-surgical-ceiling-light.html
And, while we're at it, http://www.urbanremainschicago.com/ is a pretty bitchen site.

Here is a pair of repurposed surgical lights found in a real estate listing:  http://45thompsontrail.blogspot.com/

"The lighting over the center island is made from transformed surgical lamps from a World War II hospital ship."

Someone is asking $3600 a pop for these silly pendants made of parts from a surgical light hung from a chain.

Pretty.

Very pretty, but older and more steampunk looking than the one I got.

design ideas - bathroom sconce lights

We keep saying we like "industrial", but so far we haven't agreed on an industrial decor item for the house.  Maybe the bathroom sconces over/beside the master bath sink/mirror would be a place to start.
So, what do you think of these as ideas:

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CL Score - Crystal Chandelier

A "grand beast"?  Not by a long shot.  It was, however, a large number of crystals in a nice assortment of traditional shapes and good sizes with a solid brass frame and several concentric tiers (see the first pic below).  My best guess is that over 90% of the crystals are present and accounted for.
When the seller agreed to let it go for half of what she was originally asking it was too good a deal to pass up.  I snipped the wires right there in her sitting room and packed it all with newspaper and brought it home on the subway.  It is hard to photograph without a light behind it and they definitely need a good washing, but you get the idea.
I think I have enough crystals now to assemble a pretty good chandelier.  But, given all the other stuff going on, I am going to store them for the time being until we're closer to ready to needing a chandelier.

 Here are all the crystals - not included in this photo are the 6 arm assemblies at the ends of which the six exterior bulbs are mounted (comprised of cut glass S-shaped arms, 4 inch wide cups or bobeches and 3 inch tall bobeches or flowers)

And here's a helpful glossary of chandelier parts:

Flea Market Score - Chandelier Crystals

I set my alarm for 3:10am this past Sunday morning (which was actually 2:10am since we set the clocks forward that very morning) and I drove down to pick up a friend so that we could a attend the opening day of Elephant's Trunk flea market in New Milford, CT. The gates open at 5:45am to early buyers for $20 and they open to everyone else at 7am for $2 -- the theory being that by 7am everything good is already gone.
Anyway, we were exhausted (actually, he was still drunk because I basically picked him up from in front of the bar he'd been partying at) and it was cold,  but there were a lot of people and it was pretty exciting. Lots of vendors were there though most weren't set up until almost 7:30. Still,  we found some cool stuff.
The point of this post though is that I scored this trickortreat bucket of round crystals and a bag of tear drops as well fairly cheap. I figure anything under a dollar per crystal for large size crystals and I'm doing fine. 

V and I are discussing how to use the crystals to build an industrial looking chandelier. I just want something bright and sparkly and fun. V is better at imagining the overall way the piece comes together.
So these are the crystals.
Ideas?

design idea - chandelier pulley

Once I finish the big, dark, industrial chandelier, I am going to need to suspend it from the ceiling.  I know I haven't begun work on the chandelier yet, but it is never too early to begin imagining how it will be suspended.  My thought has been to run a chain or rope or cable through a big pulley mounted to the ceiling.  But which pulley?
There are so many lovely old pulleys of roughly the same vintage as the dumbwaiter pulley that I am using as the heart of the chandelier.  Below are some samples I found quickly on the internet. Note that a good many of them are made by the same company, Myers, that made the barn door roller-pulleys we got to carry the interior door from the box to the tube.  So check them out (click on the pix to enlarge):