Rosalie beaded chandelier

Wooden beads strung by hand from the ceiling plate down to a bamboo ring, then out and under to close an empire shape 30 cm across. It mounts to the ceiling and hangs 45 cm, so it works wherever it wouldn’t get in the way: a loft bedroom, on a landing, or over the dining room table.

The fitting is matched to the beads, antique brass with the warmer colours and black hardware with the black. Light falls through the strands in patches across the ceiling and the walls.

It takes one E27 bulb, not included, and an electrician has to put it up.

The studio is in South Africa, and it’s a small one: a single woman started it beading chandeliers for her own house, and as the orders came she trained the women who bead there now.

The frame is bamboo. They thread maple beads onto waxed cotton cord and hang the strands from the ceiling canopy down to the ring, then carry them outward and under until the strands close into the rounded empire line.

Where the beads are painted, the colour runs in a set order along every strand, so the sequence repeats the whole way round. The hardware is matched to the beads: antique brass, white or black.

Dust the beads with a dry cloth or a soft brush. Keep water away from the fitting and the cord, and don’t wipe the holder while the power is on. Painted beads keep their colour out of direct sun; a bedroom window that gets the afternoon will fade them over years.