A while back I talked about mocking up my own version of Lindsey Adelman’s DIY chandelier out of K’Nex before laying out cash for all the little bits & parts. A prototype, if you will.
It seemed like a really awesome and logical idea at the time.
And completely & utterly did not work.
The K’Nex pieces just don’t translate well to lighting parts. I think pipe cleaners might be up for round 2.
brickcitylove.com 
Hey, just found you via another blog I read. I’ll have to parse through some of your posts soon, but as soon as I saw this one, I thought of copper. I used some thin plumbing piping to do my pendant lights (http://www.mydadsshoes.com/2011/01/inexpensive-homemade-pendant-lights.html) and I think something similar would work for you, here. Thanks for sharing your failures! Not everyone does. 🙂