Vail Chandelier

Joe Cooper Studio designed this magnificent Chandelier and brought it to Heirloom for fabrication. Our expert craftsmen worked closely with the Cooper Studio staff to bring this stunning piece of functional art to life for the Plaza Hotel in Vail, Colorado.

The finished chandelier, installed in Vail, Colorado.

This is the artist's original mock-up of the design.

An early concept drawing of the design.

Here's another view of how some of the electrical connections worked.

This photo shows some detail of the electrical connections.

Here's a good shot of the metal cylinder that housed the wiring. Note the varied location of the holes, which prevented the branches from being attached in the wrong locations. This was the "keying" mechanism that was architected into the design.

From this angle, you can see how branches can be removed individually for finishing and detailing, while maintaining the integrity of the chandelier's support structure.

This pie-shaped jig ensured that the branches were all level at their lowest point. The jig rotated 360 degrees around the workspace.

This side view gives you an idea how dense the branches are.

The floor stand was used to secure the chandelier in an upright position during fabrication. But we also had to hoist it from the ceiling from time to time in order to work on it from the bottom. In this photo, James is attaching a chain to the top.

This is a good shot of the stand that was built to raise the chandelier off the ground during fabrication.

Here's a good shot from below the chandelier. It illustrates how dense the branches are.

This picture gives you some perspective of the size of the chandelier, relative to a very proud artisan.

This was one of the first times we dimmed the lights in the shop to check out the functionality if the chandelier with some of the LED lights in place.

Shipping requirements brought about the need for a custom-made crate.

A lot of attention was paid to securing the chandelier for shipping.

The shipping crate was designed to provide secure mounting at the top as well as the bottom of the chandelier.

The octagonal shipping crate was supplemented by stuffing foam between branches.

Here's the shipping crate - all sealed up and ready for its journey across the country. The shipping company had to dispatch a second truck because the first one had door hinges that would not allow the 8 foot-wide crate to be loaded.