Do the same with the top layer, making very sure that the smaller layers are facing each other and that the bottom layer is facing in the correct direction (you don't want the mirror image!). Glue the two layers that make the bottom of the chandelier together on a flat surface, using weights as clamps. It also has a disco mode, which is fun for parties! To make it more astronomically authentic, the lights can be programmed to mimic the color and relative brightness of the individual stars (I have a scene in the Wiz app called "Crux"). Not everyone has been immediately reminded of these shapes though - I've had everything from a dragon's tongue to a shepherd's crook to a question mark! But that's OK - I like the fact it starts a conversation, and given that I'm in Canada, it is perhaps unsurprising people are not reminded of a constellation that most have never seen or a shape that doesn't culturally resonate. It had the happy result of generating a stylized koru (the shape of a growing fern frond, and a staple feature of Maori art) in the negative space.
While doodling a shape to base the frame on, I drew a breaking wave form through all six stars. I was born and grew up in NZ, and the constellation is part of the flag, as it is for Brazil, Samoa, Australia, and Papua New Guinea, so the Southern Cross was a natural inspiration for a new one. I love astronomically-inspired chandeliers, having made two based on the solar analemma. Some other interesting objects in the vicinity of Crux include the massive shadowy Coalsack Nebula and the Jewel Box cluster. The Southern Cross lies in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, which is considerably more prominent in the southern hemisphere sky as it looks toward the dense galactic center rather than the sparser outer regions of the galaxy as in the northern hemisphere. The six stars include the first two binary star systems detected, and the first star (Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to us) to have its distance from us measured. Four of the six stars are blue-white, one is orange, and Alpha Centauri is a beautiful golden yellow (actually two sun-like stars). Two even brighter stars (3rd and 11th), Alpha and Beta Centauri, point at the Southern Cross (and are hence called "the Pointers"), and these 6 stars can be used to find due south (see figure above). It is my favorite constellation: it's the smallest of the 88, but on average has the brightest stars (featuring 3 of the top 25). The Southern Cross ( Crux) is an iconic feature of the southern sky.
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