Fixing a Broken Chandelier Using my Art Degree🎨🤓

Now you know what a "Bobeche" is!

Sep 08, 2025

Having 6 years of formal art training under my belt has given me the overconfidence to think I can figure out how to make essentially anything from scratch.
Throughout my art life I’ve made:
- tiny intricate theatres out of paper
- a tree made of plaster cloth
- papier-mâché dolphins with Vegas showgirl headpieces pulling a shell carriage
- animals made completely of wire
- a fork made out of my own hair
… and the list goes on! So when I saw this vintage ceramic chandelier with a missing bobeche, I thought, “piece of cake!”

What is a bobeche, you ask? (I also didn’t know!)
It’s that little decorative tray thing that sits under the chandelier’s ‘candles’.
Here’s a diagram from “The Lighting Guy” so you can see what I am referring to:

Now, because I am horrible at remembering to take ‘before’ photos of things, I don’t have any to share with you…😅 Oops!
But the good news is, I am an artist, so here is an illustrated rendition of the ‘before’ for you:

It’s a beautiful vintage pink ceramic chandelier with brass accents! *Not illustrated here, but it did also still have all the proper wiring and ‘candle’ attachment for the lightbulb. All it needed was a bobeche!

As you can see, the bobeche is completely missing. But it should be simple enough to recreate it! So let’s begin!

First I took a pic of one of the other bobeches, so I could study it and reference it as I went along.

I made note of:
- the ombre colour-scheme, going from dusty rose pink to almost white
- the bright gold details
- the overall pattern of the gold details

I started with some clay - just using good old Super Sculpy. I rolled it out as flat as I could get it, and then used the top of a candle tin to cut out a perfect circle shape - about the size of the bobeche.

*Doing this on top of a Ouija Board creates a whimsical working experience & is good for spooky moral👻

I used the ‘candle’ piece to cut out a perfect-sized circle in the middle. And I cut the whole thing in two so I could mold it to the bobeches shape more easily. I will reattach the two pieces later.

The bobeche itself actually had quite a bit of textured detail on it. To capture that, I pressed the clay firmly onto the bobeche, so that it would essentially stamp my clay with those details.

Here you can see the results of that!

I shaped my clay into more of a domed shape, and then baked both pieces.

Next it was time to get painting!

I focused on getting the ombre just right, so that my handmade bobeche would fit right in with all the rest.

Finally, it was time to add those brass accents.

I first tried to capture the look with some gold paint. This worked ok, but the bass on the chandelier is quite bright & striking - the paint just wasn’t delivering that oomph! So, I got out some gold leaf, and that really did the trick!

Once I had the paint job where I wanted it, it was time to attach this baby!! To do that, I used a combination of hot glue, and air dry clay. I glued the two pieces together, and then used the air dry clay to fill in the cracks.

Once the clay air dried, I repainted those bits so it would look seamless.

*Disclaimer: I know it is not PERFECT. My bobeche is definitely a little wonky! The paint colour is a little too cool-toned! And the gold leaf little too flakey! But, I wasn’t going for perfect, I was going for camouflage - and I think I achieved that quite well!!

Look at her now! Fully bobeched and ready to be hung! When it’s hanging up high, blinding you with it’s twinkling candlesque bulbs, you won’t even notice that there is one bobeche that’s a little funny!

So let’s get this baby hung, and have a look!