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domino magazine just had a short article of how to do this.

I see these sprayed all the time on DIY shows (mask all sockets carefully, use the paints Maxwell mentioned, and do lots of light coats instead of a one heavy one). You may also need to do a layer of high-adhesion primer?

Wonder if you could take something like this to an auto body shop?

I agree with Maxwell. I'll add just a tad to that, though. If what you had was something EXACTLY like what's in the picture, and you wanted to paint most of it green, but the flowers to be something like orange or pink or red or something, you might go ahead and paint the whole thing white, like you see here, in fact, since it's metal, that white should be a Rust-o-leum primer.

Then I would mask off the flowers with blue painters tape, and spray the green (again -- numerous thin coats, like he says). Then mask off the green VERY WELL and either spray paint the flowers, OR... you can actually buy little jars of Rust-o-leum paint that are the exact same paint, but not in a spray can, and apply it to the petals individually. Or you can probably find really tiny jars of Testors enamel that's made for painting little model cars.

I think that if you were going to have this done in a body shop, you'd probably need to UN-wire it, but NOT re-wire until after the painting was done, because I think they have to BAKE the paint after they paint it, to really give it the right finish, and you wouldn't want to bake wiring.

I painted a metal flower lamp that was from a grandmother's house for my daughter's room with pearlescent ink, that was leftover from our wedding inviations that I printed. The ink came from an art supply store. I didn't prime it, just started painting and put on several layers. It's been 12 years and still looks great.

Hi D,

Check out Great Chandeliers - Spectrum Home Furnishing. When it comes to getting answers about chandeliers, they seem to be the authority. Good luck

Sorry here is that link again.

http://www.greatchandelier.com

I have to respond to the Great Chandeliers recommendation - while I don't know if they can answer your question, I do know that it is a very, very bad idea to buy anything from them. I made that mistake and received something that was absolutely not what I paid for, went through hell trying to get them to make things right and ultimately had to get my credit card company to try and get my money back. Great Chandeliers is simply not a place to trust with your money. They will ship you a defective product and refuse to take it back.