Architectural Classics caught my eye this morning with a wonderful story about an underground chapel in a Polish salt mine, of all places. It’s lit with glorious salt chandeliers, where all the pendant crystals are made of salt!
The crystals are really rustic, and give a beautifully juxtaposed effect — with the roughness and opacity of salt crystals in the confines of what is traditionally a luxury household item, and a trapping of the very rich.
Salt crystals “throw a strange dusky night time light,” apparently quite different from the effect of the lead-cut crystals that came into common use in the 18th century.
Vaguely remembering an elementary school science project to make salt crystals, it occurs to me that it might be fun to make your own salt chandelier — or at least, to embellish a lamp shade with a fringe made of strings of salt crystals! Hmm, I’ll definitely have to give this some thought…