Asian Chandelier

Asian LED Chandelier

	Quilted maple, figured maple and padauk make up this LED dining chandelier. Custom ceiling canopy made of figured maple and padauk to contain the LED transformer. Curly bamboo covers the hanger cables and wiring.

	The quilted maple shows its character in this photograph taken at our shop prior to delivery to the customer. Inside the curved padauk corners, the quilted maple was joined with hand cut dovetails. The white dots you see just below the padauk runner are high output LED light strips.

	The above photos show the light rays the fixture casts on to the walls and ceilings. The project was designed to create this effect.
	It started off when a client drew a design on a napkin, "I want you to build me a dining room fixture. You know what I want." I didn't. But I took some quilted maple and padauk and milled it to dimension. Then I started experimenting.
	I felt I had the corners and outer perimeter right, but everything else was a guess. I made (4) interior braces out of padauk and slotted them so the maple slats would slide through. The pieces on the top were an attempt at putting some Asian flare into the project.
	I placed cutoffs from the corner pieces to see how I might incorporate them into the design. It looked like a pontoon boat. Idea scrapped!
	I trashed the initial center braces and made new ones so I could create some kind of pagoda roof profile. Then I ran the top slats through the bandsaw again to create a flair on the bottom.
	Looking down the 4' length
	This is the underside after thru-mortise openings for the LED slats were added. A coat of lacquer was applied to seal the wood.
	Side view
	The LED slats have been added. These slats have a groove running down the length, on the other side, to allow the LED strips to be inserted.
	I had to make some place for the LED driver to go so I built a box that would mount on the ceiling
	The four holes on the bottow will receive aircraft wire for hanging the fixture.
	Coming together...
	Test run on the LED lights. It was difficult to tell if the illumination would be sufficient to light a dining room.
	Next came making a bracket to connect the wood canopy to the electrical box in the ceiling.
	How it will look once installed. The maple sides were intentionally left lower than the padauk ends to allow for heat dissapation.
	Back to the fixture... I was worried about the reflective qualities of the maple slats so I masked everything but the maple to receive gloss coats of lacquer. The hope was the gloss would be more light reflective
	After the coats of gloss lacquer had dried, I sanded and polished the lacquer to a mirror finish. Getting into that narrow area resulted in some worn away skin on the fingers!
	The white squares on the bottom are the LED light strips
	I had to run some Wiremold from the old fixture box to get the fixture centered over the client's dinind table. The control wiring to the touch switch on the wall added a lot of wires.
	An added touch, a custom made padauk coverplate.

Asian LED Chandelier