Different Types of Pinning for the Crystals on a Chandelier
All the little pieces of crystals connect to each other using wire, but there are different methods of making these connections. We call this chandelier pinning and there are 3 prominent styles: Swedish, Traditional (aka Wrinkle) and Clips.
A crystal that has Swedish pinning will have one long piece of wire strung into the holes of the two pieces of crystals that are to be connected. This one piece of wire is then wound around itself.
Usually a fixture that has this type of Swedish pinning will utilize the same pinning method to connect the crystals to the body of the chandelier - making cleaning a fixture like this more time consuming.
Traditional or Wrinkle pinning is similar to Swedish, but uses 2 pins - one pin per crystal hole. These pins look like straight pins when purchased.
As you can see above, the pins are looped into a circle with curling pliers and turned perpendicular to each other. Then, they are wound together - similar to 2 split rings. Usually, they are then simply hooked, with the same type of pin bent into a hook, to a chandelier.
The more modern way to pin crystal is to use Clips. Like a staple, one end of a clip goes into the hole of one piece of crystal and the other end of the clip goes into the next crystal.
The above photo shows plain clips, but some clips look like bowties and are called Bowtie clips.
Visit our YouTube channel for tutorials on pinning.
- Tags: Chandelier Parts
- King's Chandelier Company
Comments 4
Nancy with King's Chandelier
Answering Sara:
Valuable is relative – they may be valuable to someone who is looking for a particular piece that is a rare shape in great condition and you have that rare shape. But, in general, loose crystals are not particularly valuable. I’ve never hung them on a fence, but that sounds beautiful! You can purchase thin jewelry wire at hobby stores and wrap that somehow, but it will probably rust. Of course the pins in the crystal will as well, so that may not matter. You could take the pins out of the main crystal and thread a string of some type (or dental floss) and tie that on the fence. Pinterest may be of more help than me on this subject. Send us a photo of your fence when you have it finished!
sara passarelli
before i start taking the crystals off my 2 old chandeliers, i wanted to know if they are valuable? I got them from an old dairy farm, probably about 1900. Mine are some small and some large diamond shaped crystals. Thanks for your time. Any suggestions for hanging the crystals along my fence would be appreciated. Sara Passarelli
Nancy with King's Chandelier
Hi Annie. It is so difficult to get anything pinned with the Swedish type of crystal to hang the same length, but , ideally, yes, they would have all been close to the same at one point. If the pinning isn’t brittle, you can work with it some. If it is brittle, it will probably fall apart. For those that are very OC about such things, the plain clips do the best job of making everything even and symmetrical and you could consider re-pinning . But, I think that it is understood among those of us that like old things, that not much is perfect.
ANnie
Hi, my lamp has the Swedish pinning crystals. The Crystal’s are shaped like icicles. Are they suppose to all hang exactly the same length?? It seems impossible to do!