Hi, Pretties. So, it’s happened, hasn’t it? You went to the Bahamas on vacation and your kids had a wild kegger. While the protagonist in a teen movie had a failed sexual encounter in your master bed, some jock tossed a football through your foyer and busted your chandelier. Your kid swears it just fell off all on its own (”Honest, no one was here but me and a few friends!”) but the plastic cups you found embedded in your hedges and the faint odor of puke in the garage tell a different tale.

Anyway, after you ground the kid, you’re going to have to have to glue that arm back on. If you have a real fancy chandelier from an antebellum plantation or something, then you’ll want to have an expert take a look. But if you have a rather plebian chandelier that isn’t worth a whole lot but you like a heckuva whole lot, then you may as well try fixing that puppy yourself.

Now, you can get your kid to climb up on a ladder with a bottle of glue and hold that arm in place for 24 hours until it sets as punishment, but chances are he’d flub it and you’d have a crooked arm. So, instead, use this method:

1. Carefully take down your chandelier. Remember to turn off the light at the light switch and switch off the circuit breaker. Don’t want to get fried!
2. Lay down the chandelier somewhere flat and stable. You’ll be letting it sit for 24 hours.
3. Get a piece of foam craft block.
4. From the craft block, make a little mold that will fit around where the arm connects to the chandelier. Use an intact arm as your guide and cut it out with a utility knife.
5. Using the foam block as a support, get the broken arm to push up against where it will be re-attached so it lines up perfectly. It should stay in place with the mold you fashioned. If it doesn’t, adjust the mold or get a piece of hanging wire and wrap it around the loose part of the arm and tie it to the top of the chandelier (like a suspension bridge). Get it really tight, as if you were pushing it against the rest of the chandelier. Got it? Good.
6. Loosen the wires holding the broken arm a little bit so you have about half an inch of space to work with (but don’t forget how you got it to stick that way).
7. Apply some instant glass glue to the broken joint.
8. Re-tighten the wires so the arm fits into place.
9. Wipe up any excess glue.
10. Let sit for 24 to 36 hours before removing your mold and wires. Hang ‘er back up!

The whole business with the mold is a bit hard to explain, so I tried to draw a picture. I’m afraid my graphic design skills are so poor, though, that this diagram won’t help. Plus, I forgot to draw the rest of the chandelier with the mold. So, yeah, here it is anyway

See, here we have the craft block, but for some reason, I drew the arm as if it weren’t attached to the chandelier. But you get the idea, right?

I’m mostly impressed with how I made it look all 3-D. Isn’t that great? No, I know it  isn’t. I’m sorry you had to see this.

Also, don’t use purple glue.

Anyway, it may not look perfect, but seeing as your chandelier will be suspended majestically high above the heads of your visitors, no one will notice.

Voila!

P.S. If you’re looking for a good instant glass glue, Loctite makes some. It’s cheap.

Picture of fancy chandelier is by TracyElaine.