“You made my first chandelier project very do-able Thank you”

I know in the past that I have shared customers restoration projects with you, with their consent of course, but I wanted to share the comments received in an email earlier this week just in case you had been toying with the idea of restoring a chandelier, wall lights, crystal shade etc but had been put off because you did not know where to start.

If you are reading this blog then you have started your journey as you are googling chandelier companies, chandelier repair, chandelier parts etc, don’t be hesitant in taking the next step as it is not as daunting as you may think (or as expensive) and we are here to help.

The comments in the email read “Thank you once again for your help, you have made my first chandelier project very do-able and I hope the finished product does all your work justice.”

So you may be wondering what help we gave, the help that was extended is help we offer all our customers, from private individuals to trade customers – traditional customer service, providing the type of support that we like extended to ourselves. The opportunity to speak to a human and not AI and to interact with the same individual each time so that you do not need to keep recapping the issue to gain a resolution.

After we were contacted via email enquiring about availability of some crystal buttons and beads he had identified he needed from our website but in alternative sizes to those shown, we were able to interact with him via telephone and email. After a check of our stock, we have a large amount that has not yet found it’s way on to our website, we were able to confirm availability of some of sizes and suggestions on substitutions where sizes of buttons slightly differed to his original pieces. This enabled him to purchase the parts he needed, on this occasion this is extra special as the chandeliers have sentimental meaning to him.

This is support we offer our customers every day and it varies daily on the form of assistance required. From National Trust curators confirming suitability on chain and candle tubes, customers at the very beginning of their chandelier journey as described above to enquiries regarding delivery lead times, bespoke candle tubes and thread sizes. We are here to support you with your project and would much prefer for you to reach out to us if you have a query rather than for you to decide not to proceed because it is too daunting/expensive or that your query is “silly” – your question may be a question we have been asked previously and makes us realise that we need to address the query in a blog for others!

If you don’t want to reach out to us personally start off with a visit to our website which includes a “How To Video Tutorial Page”, https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/video-tutorials.html a range of blogs covering topics such as “What is a Bobeche”, “Different methods of chandelier pinning”, “Chandelier drop names” and much more. We are also updating our website to include more information and assistance on our product listings but this takes time so please if you cannot find the answer to your question in our videos or blogs or you cannot see the chandelier part you need contact us via email info@kingschandeliers.co.uk or call us on 01206332938.

Is Your Lighting Ready For Winter Evenings And the Christmas Festives ?

We have been a little quiet on the social media side for a couple of months but only because we have been busy in the background with new products, exciting projects and extending our bespoke glass services together with our chandelier cleaning services, all of which will be covered over the forthcoming months.

As the nights draw in and the festive season approaches the lighting industry, including ourselves, get busier (who wants to worry too much about lighting during the summer months!) and this brings enquiries from customers asking how they can get their chandeliers and lighting ready for those cosy evening and festive celebrations.

With this in mind I thought I would re-share one of our earlier blogs we wrote about some of the comments and questions that we receive from customers about their chandeliers and the misconception that they may have in the cost refurbishing or repairing them.

Whilst references are made to revitalising your chandelier this blog is also appropriate for crystal and glass shades, candelabra etc.

For some of our customers chandeliers are a hobby, for some a business, others may have inherited them from family members or with a property they have purchased and others they are in a place of work. The ideas below range from costing relatively little to the more expensive and from needing no experience to perhaps requiring professional services. I may have covered an idea in a more detailed blog and if so I will pop in a link to the blog and/or links to our website.

1. Clean your chandelier, you will be surprised what a difference it can make and it doesn’t cost very much if you are able to do it yourself! A regular customer called me in the week to say she had purchased a chandelier from an online auction thinking it was made up of Amber crystals and when she received it and started to clean it it was heavily nicotine stained and a most gorgeous piece. We regularly see the same thing and covered this in a blog some years ago https://kingschandeliers.wordpress.com/page/3/

chandelier crystals AFTER cleaning

chandelier crystals BEFORE cleaning

2. Now your chandelier is sparkling clean hopefully you will have fallen back in love with it. Now you can look to see if any of the crystals are missing. This does not need to be expensive and our website has a large selection starting from relatively little, https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/chandelier-parts-and-accessories.html

3. So your chandelier is lovely and clean but your candle tubes are letting it down by being grubby, damaged or just not the finish you are looking to show. Our range of candle tubes include glass, card, metal and plastic in different colours and finishes. Our website features gold gild, black, cream, white, magnolia, antique and modern finishes in red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink. These colours are exclusive to ourselves – need a colour not shown on our website? Contact us we may be able to do other colours!

Don’t discard your chandelier if you have redecorated your room, above we have covered 3 of the cheapest and easier ways of revitalising your chandelier, cleaning, replacing missing crystals and new candle tubes but there are other things you can do:-

1. If your chandelier has a chain you could replace this (please make sure you know the weight first) If your chandelier doesn’t currently have a chain can the height of your room accommodate the chandelier hanging lower from the ceiling https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/chandelier-chains,-hooks-and-shackles/
2. We sell a large range of ceiling roses and ceiling hook plates in both traditional and modern colours, again you need to know the weight of your chandelier or light fitting (they look great with the tiffany style fly catcher shades) This will help make a focal point on your ceiling https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/ceiling-roses,-ceiling-plate-hooks/ although not essential you could top this off with one of our hand turned wooden ceiling pattress’ (great for covering marks left from removing a previous light fitting) https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/wooden-pattresses,-ceiling-roses,-fittings/
3. If you do not have experience with electrics this one is a bit more expensive if you require an electrician but changing the electrical cable to a colour complimenting your decor is another option, our website features many colours and we are happy to discuss these with you to help you make your choice
4. If you want to change the look of your chandelier or bring a bit more bling to the room you can look at changing some of the crystals or introduce more to the style – the colours produced by our crystals will give you rainbows across the room when hit by the sunshine – pop some of our crystal suncatchers in your windows and the colours will bounce around the room https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/feng-shui-crystal-sun-catchers/
5. I have left this one until last just because it is more time consuming and takes a bit of practise if you have not done anything similar in the past, chandelier crystal pinning. Repinning your chandelier can either be done in pins, rings or bow tie clips. Our “How To” video’s feature one on pinning https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/chandelier-repairs-and-restoration.html

Many of our customers who have restored their own chandeliers have found that they love this new hobby and turn it into an additional income, buying from ourselves there is not a minimum order level, we have a lifetime customer loyalty discount scheme and many of our products are postage free.

What’s New With Chandelier Candle Tubes

At King’s Chandelier Services Ltd we pride ourselves on listening to our customers, this is how we expanded from onsite chandelier cleaning and chandelier restoration to offering the extensive range of antique and vintage chandelier spares. By the way we do still offer chandelier cleaning and restoration services so feel free to contact us if you are looking for either of these services!

Back to point, listening to our customers, and studying our sales records, we are aware that plastic candle tubes are loosing their appeal with a move to more sustainable materials. Add to this the introduction of the plastic tax pushing the costs of plastic candle tubes up to prices that we were paying for card candle sleeve tubes, we knew that we had to do something pro-active.

When purchasing mass produced chandelier candle tubes the customer has always been limited on the choice of height, colour, style etc. King’s Chandelier Services LTd are pleased to announce that we are now manufacturing our own card candle tubes, hand finished, and in doing so we are able to offer flexibility to our customers.

By making our own candle tubes we are able to offer a much larger height range, currently the tallest is 300mm height – the shortest – well you can choose – if you cannot see the height you need just email us. All heights will be available either with drip effect or plain and we are able to offer a wider choice of colour, again if you cannot see the colour you need then just email us and we will see if we can accommodate the colour.

At present we are transitioning our plastic candle tube range over to card and we are pleased to say that by producing these ourselves we will be able to keep the prices competitive so you, the customer, will not see massive prices increases.

Using card candle tubes is more sustainable than plastic and the card candle tubes can last longer than plastic as the plastic can become brittle with age.

Our candle tubes are being manufactured to be suitable with a choice of our lamp holders so you will be able to purchase these together if required.

If you have any questions or are interested in a particular size please email us as your thoughts are important to us when developing new product ranges https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/contact.html

Below is just a small selection, all available in drip and plain designs.

Yellow Candle Tubes

Cream Candle Tube Drip Effect

White Drip Card Chandelier Sleeves

Black Card Chandelier Candle Sleeves

Gold Gilt Candle Tubes

Brown Candle Tubes Sleeves

Chandeliers – What Is A Bobeche

The word Bobeche is French in origin and is the cup that sits at the end of your chandelier arm.

Traditionally their purpose was to catch the hot wax from the candles before electrification, perhaps not just for safety maybe they collected the wax up and used it to make replacements candles as wax was very expensive. Their originally purpose also lends itself to an alternative name of “wax catcher”.

With electrification the bobeche sits in its traditional position but with the lamp holder and candle tube sleeve taking the place of the candle.

Bobeche can come in many different styles, a few shown below, and can either have pin holes for the suspension of crystal or glass chandelier drops or no pin holes all dependant on the style, design and age of your chandelier.

Some of the other terms to describe Bobeche in addition to wax catcher are:

• Grease Pan
• Chandelier Saucer
• Chandelier Pan
• Drip Pan
• Candle Drip Pan
• Glass Chandelier Saucer

Why should you buy from King’s Chandelier Services Ltd

Female Or Male Thread

One of the questions that we are asked is what is the difference between a female thread and a male thread and which do I need.

A female thread is on the inside and receives the item, the male thread is external and so visible to the eye and enters the item. We have prepared a simple reference sheet showing some examples of lighting components with both thread types, all of which are available from our website.

Please telephone, 01206332938, or email info@kingschandeliers.co.uk if you have any questions

Candle Tubes And Lamp Holder Sets

Need new lamp holders and candle tubes but not certain which candle tube is suitable for which lamp holder? Our website now features candle tube and lamp holder sets including exclusive sizes, finishes and styles.

We also hand craft candle tubes in bespoke sizes, full details are shown on our website https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/card-candle-tubes/

Candle Tube and Lamp Holder Sets From Kings Chandelier Services Ltd

Murano Spare Parts News

As you may be aware some time back, we purchased a large collection of antique Murano parts and have gradually been cataloguing these for addition to our website as well as choosing pieces to recreate antique Murano chandeliers in our own workshops. Many pieces have found new homes in the UK, America, Germany and Spain allowing antique chandeliers to be restored with genuine parts.

However, we still have many parts remaining and decided that, to avoid our website becoming too overwhelming, a few alterations should be made to make it clearer and more enjoyable experience for both our users and us.

Our Murano spares section originally categorised by colour but as we have found during cataloguing the number of colour variations growing, we knew some changes needed to be made. We have now updated to categories by type, for example, Murano Flowers, Murano Arms, Murano leaves etc, this change reflects the design on the main Chandelier Parts and Accessories page.

Our general chandelier arm section contains a link to the Murano section to make the customers search experience easier when looking for chandelier arms for all chandelier styles.

As our Murano collection is so vast, we have also created a Murano section on our sister website, link below, which features pieces not shown in our own Murano collection, link also below. Having said that we still have many pieces that have not been added to either website so if you do not find the piece for your chandelier, please contact us with details and we can check our stocks – one client who did this is currently having her Murano chandelier restored as we were able to provide the genuine pieces other companies could not source

https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/category/59/murano-chandelier-parts–click-for-sub-categories/

https://www.light-fix.co.uk/category/46/antique-venetian-chandelier-parts/

Antique Murano Chandelier Spares In Milky Blue Glass

Different Methods Of Chandelier Pinning

There are different methods of re-pinning your chandelier crystals allowing you the choice to suit your chandelier and your personal preferences.

Chandelier Pinning Options By Kings Chandelier Services Ltd

Chandelier Pins -This is the traditional method of chandelier pinning (along with chandelier wire). The pins have a pin head and come in a choice of finishes and lengths – if you are new to chandelier pinning we recommend that you start with the longer pins and as you become more comfortable with the process you can, if you wish, reduce the length of the pin you start with. Having a longer pin allows you to be able to trim any excess you do not need.

Pinning pliers can be purchased from our website (click here) and we have a “How To” Video on our website on our Video Tutorial Page

Chandelier Bow Tie Clips – These are a simple pinning method, often used on more modern chandeliers but equally acceptable on vintage chandeliers. You insert one “leg” through the hole on your crystal, fold the leg over to the centre (legs to the back of the crystal), insert the other leg through your second crystal and fold over to meet the other leg in the centre thus the decorative front is the piece that will be on show. As well as being popular for repinning chandeliers they are very popular for joining crystals on suncatchers.

Chandelier Connecting Rings – These are again popular for the modern chandeliers and are a simple way of joining chandelier crystals and suncatcher crystals. Open the ring and feed it through the crystal, you may want to find it easier to use our pinning pliers when using the rings to hold the ring open whilst you insert through the crystal to stop the ring closing prematurely.

Chandelier Pinning Wire – A traditional chandelier crystal pinning method whereby you need to create a “pin head” to stop the wire going straight through the crystal. The wire can be cut to the lengths that you require as you go along. The chandelier wire is also used when the design requires the chandelier beads to be strung and for tying in place glass ribs to metal chandelier arms.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Chandelier Drop Names – Part Three

What Are My Chandelier Drops Called – Part 3 – we have taken a little break from our blogs, not intentionally just busy with new stock coming in and preparing customers orders and restoration projects.

As crystal Albert drops have been very popular in the last weeks I thought this blog could feature cut and plain full and half Alberts.

We recognise that with more people shopping online and less physical shops to personally choose your chandelier drops it can be frustrating, and following a request from one of our interior designer customers we have started putting together some product name identifiers so show some of the names we use on our website with photo examples.

We have many more pieces on our website and in our workshops so please contact us for further details or forward photos of the pieces you are looking to match to – our stocks are genuine vintage and antique pieces not reproduction.

Visit our website https://www.kingschandeliers.co.uk/pendants,-drops,-spikes,-crystal-pendalogues/ or email us info@kingschandeliers.co.uk