take it to a car body shop and have them powder coat it in the color you like...
yeah

There are some antiquing solutions you can dip brass into for a darker antiqued effect. I've not used these, but maybe you can test a small inconspicous part of the ligth to see if it works.

Oops, forgot the link:

http://www.rufkahrs.com/hardw4/darken1.html

Vinegar is supposed to oxidize a bit more quickly than salt water...

I think brassy yellow gold would look fantastic and rich with your earth-tone decor.
I see brass creeping into a lot of home decor magazines. It is probably almost time for a brass resurgence. More reason to keep as is?
At any rate, one of the best thing about these lights are the leafy shadows they cast on walls rather than the color of the material.

Don't these come flat, in which case easy to spray? But I think you need a high-adhesion primer first.

If not, I think it overly ambitious to spray this out, and since the metal is so pliable on this, I think there is a good chance paint will flake off and be a general mess as time goes on, not to mention what the heat of the bulb may do to the paint.

I'm with AustinJohn. Leave it be.

And I love these "I got a GREAT deal.. but it's not exactly what I want" purchases!! That always makes me laugh!

how about getting a different colour light bulb... that might soften the whole effect... don't they make amber ones?

hmm... paying full price for the one you wanted is starting to sound like it would have been a better deal.

Well the reason it was such a great deal was because it was literally a giant clump of 4 of these lamps all tangled together for the price of 1.5 individual lamps. It was very difficult to untange the mess, but I finally did it. I tried dipping the brass in acetone and ammonia and it had a weird result. It was ugly and blotchy.

I am now leaning towards leaving it gold. I'm over the initial shock of the color since it has been hanging around my living room for a few weeks.

But I am still very open to suggestions, as the darker color would really look better! I do think it would be worth looking into the amber light bulb... that could be interesting.

I'm all for getting a good deal and then altering the item in question until it is exactly what you want. I say check out your local hardware store to see what sprays they have that would work on this surface. How satisfying will it be to look up at it and know that not only did you get a great deal but you perfected it yourself! I'm willing to bet there's a good range of color choices in sprays that will perform fine on this material and next to a lit light bulb. Hand painting each tiny curve sounds like a project from hell (altho one I still might take on rather than constantly looking at the fixture and wanting it to be a different color). Also, if the antiquing solutions seem like they'll work, I vote put them in a spray bottle. Car body shop is also a great idea although it may end up costing you a lot.

I have three of these shades hanging in my window, the gold color looks great with my green earthtoned room. I love how they brighten up the whole room.

It might look good just the way they are.

Rustoleum spray paint works great on lights. Many thin coats is the key,

Maybe there are people out there that want that color of light? Could you perhaps post on CL for a trade?

Rustoleum spray primer followed by a Rustoleum spray paint might work. That spray primer will stick to just about anything. (Don't buy Krylon or other brands -- the formula is different, as I've found to my dismay.)

This would definitely be a "try on an inconspicuous area first" method, though, and that's coming from someone reckless beyond her own abilities or common sense.

PLEASE video tape the exchange if you bring these to an auto body shop for painting! PLEASE!!!

sell them on ebay--and use the $ to buy the color you wanted.

I would say not to use paint at all...
if this item is really lazer cut brass sheet, then I would use a chemical solution to tarnish the brass (which can turn anything from a warm brown to lead gray and so on)

I would suggest searching online for answers under "at home patina's for metal" or something like that. Or get the Rio grande catalog for jewelry and see if they have something premixed.

and yes, playing with chemicals is not the safest thing to do at home...but if you have a scrap I would test basic things like peroxide (beauty shop strength), ammonia (which may turn it statue of liberty green), or sulferous compounds available in catalogues. i have even heard of metal artists using urine...

again, not a total expert, and it is brass, not copper or sterling which oxidize much easier...

so you may need to try a few things.

last point- you can also try pearl paint, they ised to have small bottles of patina formulas around the plaster and sculpting supplies area.

Various chemicals cause different patina effects. Many acids darken metals. Here's a site with specific formulas http://www.sciencecompany.com/patinas/patinaformulas.htm#1

Good luck...I'd love to see the finished piece.

Years ago, Martha Stewart did a segment on her then Living show about how to turn bright brass fixtures into antiqued brass ones. I remembered it being somewhat easy too. I've been looking for that instruction online ever since but to no avail. I wonder if that would have worked for the lights in this case?

There's this stuff called liver of sulpher (which smells as bad as it sounds) that i've used to tarnish copper before, and it might work on brass as well. They have it at art stores. I bet that'd work...

I like the brass also. Whatever you decide, if you do this yourself, please, please wear an industrial type respirator (not a dust mask) if you're using chemicals, even liver of sulphur (which would be expensive since its mostly sold in small quantities for jewelry folks like me and the resuls can be unpredictable) because in large enough quantity, these chems can be deadly - maybe not the day you use them, but they can set you up for problems in the future.

Good luck

I did spray paint mine, because I had paid full price for one but thought it looked too thin, so I found 2 more for less than $40 in the wrong color.

Mine were still flat so this was easy and so long as following the tenets of spray painting- quick bursts, multiple thin coats, all went very well, they are now all successfully folded together.