So, I finally finished it.

It took several days. I decided to pickle the old brass by painting on white and then methodically wiping off to show the detail better. This process took several hours and I spread it out over three days. As I was standing on a stool finishing the last part of the painting, the FedEx guy dropped the package of crystals at my front door. So exciting! I played around with how I would hang them over the next three days. I had to re-wire every one so they would all match. Man, that was time consuming! Thank goodness for jewelry pliers! Now all I have left is to get some more chain and splice the wires so that I can swag it over the dining room table. I'm having my first dinner party at that table this week!