Hi all,
I've just finished installing my first ironwork job and wanted to share some pictures. Admittedly there wasn't a lot of smithing involved here, almost everything was done cold. There are a lot of details here that I'd sort out if I were doing the job again, but overall I'm really happy with the result.
The job was new candelabra for our local church for their annual Christmas carols by candlelight event. The arrangement they had been using was made by a local farmer and was definitely showing its age (lots of tobacco tins, bits of fibreboard and ad-hoc clamps involved). The job was made more challenging by rules that no changes could be made to the fabric of the church building without approval from the diocesan chancellor. Fortunately, there were anchor points at the tops of the arches and holes already drilled in the window sills that could be used for mounting.
I'm really pleased with what I've achieved - I hope you like it too.
These window-sill fittings were the first to go in. I'm looking forward to seeing these lit at night from the outside.
These four chandeliers were next to go in. A dozen candles on each one. These are probably the best of everything I've done, but I still wish I'd fish-tailed the ends of the scrolls. There's a slightly complicated system of hooks and loops so that you can lower them about three feet for easier replacement of candles. We've done it with them lit but it's slightly hair-raising and I think in the end we'll light and snuff them in-place.
Last to go in were these sconces on the pillars. The sconces are fitted to ratchet straps (like you'd use to tie down the load on a trailer) by poking a soldering iron through the strap to make a sealed hole, then putting a pop rivet through each hole with a washer on the outside. Ten sconces per strap. I was worried that these would flap around a bit, but the straps ratchet up very tight with almost no stretch and hold them very solidly. These were the first of the pillar straps to go in; each pillar gets another strap set about the top of the straight section of the pillar with another ten sconces.
And this shows everything together, as well as the Christmas tree which went in last weekend! In all, 132 candles (four more than the previous arrangement!) mounted around the nave of the church.