Au revoir Philadelphia!: May 2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Finale!!

Press photos...................Heading home............Au revoir Gargas and Mathieu Lustrerie! What a great time!!

celebrating our project

RJ visiting us in Gargas to celebrate the completion of our project. Rebecca and I in the atelier.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

the glow

Now that the sculpture is almost completely wired and lit, we are adding crystals from the thousands of "rejects" we have to choose from.

taking shape

We have decided to mimic a classic chandelier shape. It starts get movement and musical.

lighting it up!

finally plugging in some of the lights to see what we have and where we are going with our exquisite mess!

65th Birthday in Gargas

I celebrated my birthday with the entire atelier staff. Regis and Helene presented me with a book about the history or chandeliers. Flowers sent from RJ!

Rebecca has been welding the steel, bronze and brass to create a structure. We then add smaller parts and start to wire up sockets and arms. The team here teaches us how to work with the French system of electricity and wiring.

the beginning

We have connected some things to the ceiling winches that have been installed for us so we can raise and lower the work. There is also a floor that we can raise up to work.

Coming together

We have been here over 2 weeks and have gathered materials, mostly from a scrapyard, where the owners let us pick through the mountains of junk. The other place we gathered things was in the warehouse of Regis' mother. This was a depository of chandelier parts and crystals no longer being used. Quite a treasure chest of possibilities.