(Kind of magic) candle holders

Once upon a time, a princess bought an old lampshade.

Yes, this is gonna be a fairytale, in which the heroine discovers a treasure where it was not expected and learns a important life lesson: Even though stuff might not go according to your plan, doesn´t mean it will not work out perfectly in the end.

OK, the princess is really me, but otherwise the story ist true.

Besides, owing to a filandering baron who lived 100 years ago I actually got a drop of blue blood in me, even if it is not legitime.

But back to the tale.


The princess wanted to create a basket to store her golden apples. So she went to an old crone, who was known far and wide for selling old and used things that could be turned into true gems through hard work, imagination and a hint of witchery.

Once inside the small hut, the princess was nearly sidetracked by all the possiblities she spied around her, but then she caught sight of an old lampshade.

It was truly ghastly, covered in old, outdated fabrics, the cables rotting and falling apart. But the princess, being true of heart, only looked at the inside, where the metal structure seemed perfect for a bowl. So she bought the lampshade for a steal, and happily returned to her palace.

Once at home she ripped apart the lampshade and tried to make the bowl. She wrapped it with wire. She wrapped it with string. She cut parts off, and bend the remains. She thought about covering it in fabric. It just did not turn out as wanted.

The princess was full of despair. Perhaps, then, she did not own the magic of turning the crone´s trash into gold?

But as she wept, suddenly, her view fell on the lathed pieces of wood that had covered the lamp´s cable. And, though her mind was still clouded with grief, she realized: would these not make terrific candle holders? And be an outlet for the crush she had developed on geometrical designs?

So she took her acrylic paint, brush and masking tape. However,  before she could start painting, the princess had to overcome the obstacle of
calculating how many triangles would fit next to each other, and which length the base would have to have. But who wants geometrical patterns has to know her algebra....

The smaller candle holder was easy. But on the bigger one, owing to the curve, the upper triangle had to have a shorter base than the lower ones... a real monstrosity! The princess was nearly overcome by fear, yet with a prayer, she took an the fight.

And what a fight it was! But armed with pen, paper and measuring tape, after several fails the princess prevailed. She marked the outer line and the starting points of the triangles with a pencil.

Finally, she began to paint. The masking tape was used to keep the colours from bleeding into each other or the wood.

The princess spent several evenings in front of her magic mirror, watching reruns of "The big bang theory" and painting the wood. It was quite relaxing.

And in the end, the princess had turned the crone´s trash into a treasure, even though it was not the treasure she had thought to create.

And so, she lived happily ever after with her magic candle holders!

BTW, don´t worry, I did not really weep ; )

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