Candle Lantern How To
During the summer I love to linger outside with friends as the day makes its slow fade into night. A bottle of wine, a few good nibbles, and flickering candlelight sets the mood for lots of gabbing and laughing. I have a big collection of votive holders leftover from our wedding, but I’ve been wanting to hang candle lanterns around our deck.
Luckily, after I wrote about my Aunt Buffe’s lanterns, she offered to show me how to make them. Buffe has created quite a collection of these candle lanterns and she dangles them from the trees that ring her backyard. As dusk falls, the little lights swing from the branches and look like fairies dancing in the trees.
I took a series of photos as we turned some old jars into lanterns and thought I’d share them with you. They are really easy to make—my four year-old cousin was a wonderful helper—and very inexpensive. Have fun! If you need inspiration, check out the most recent Anthropologie catalog. They have a lovely (and pricey) collection of lanterns made from jars.
Start by gathering up a collection of jars. Short, squat jars are easier to get the melted votives out of, but you can use any size that you like. Mustard, jam, and baby food jars all work great. You can also stop by your local reuse store and search for old glass light fixtures if you want larger lanterns.
To make the lanterns you’ll need 22- and 24-gauge wire and small pliers. You can use beads, vintage buttons, sea glass, driftwood—whatever you like, really—to embellish the lanterns. To make the wire hangers use the thicker 22-gauge wire. Start by deciding how far you want the lantern to hang down. From the wire spool, pull out a piece of wire that is that length, then add enough wire to wrap around the mouth of the jar, plus 5 or 6 more inches. Cut the wire with sharp scissors or wire cutters. Then cut another piece that is the same length.
Grab one piece of the wire a few inches from one end. Then wrap the remaining long piece of wire once around the jar at the base of the mouth. Secure this ring of wire by twisting the short end and the long end together two or three times. You now have one side of the hanger.
Repeat this step with the other piece of wire to make the second side of the hanger. To ensure that the lantern hangs straight, be sure to position the twisted joints directly across the mouth from each other. You can use little pliers to make sure the joints are really tightly twisted and secure.
Next, gather the wires together. About 3 inches from the top make a loop about the size of a nickel. Secure the loop by twisting the wires together. At this point, you’ll have a lantern that is ready to hang. If you want a plain lantern you can snip off any extra bits of wire sticking out from the loop or the twisted joints. Or, you can add embellishments.
Rather than clipping off the extra wire on the hanger, you can prettify it by twisting it into curlicues and spirals. To make them, just wrap the wire around something round. Chopsticks, pens, and bamboo skewers all make great curlicue tools. The bigger the diameter of your “tool” the bigger the spiral will be. You can add additional embellishments, by wrapping thin 24-gague wire around the jar or the hanger (see the photos below).
You can also add beads and buttons to the wire. Hold them in place by spiraling the wire at the bottom of the bead and crimping the wire at the top of the bead.
My first lantern looked a little funky, but I got the hang of it by my second one! It’s fun to get creative and it’s easy to undo the steps if you don’t like how your design turns out.
What a great idea. I usually reuse jars to throw away used cooking oil. I don’t like dumping it into the sink, not to mention animal fat that can actually clog the pipes.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:31 pmLovely!
June 18th, 2009 at 8:48 pmWhat a fun idea! I have a bunch of jars in my attic that would work great for this. Thanks for sharing!
June 18th, 2009 at 9:34 pmWilli, these are beautiful, but I want to know how you handle all of our PNW rain in these? I’ve done these jars too, but they catch rainwater and then just turn to icky mess with candle goo. I think maybe the key is to wait until late July to put them up when the rains finally stop, but I’ve been on the look out for something similar to jars but with holes in the bottom or something. Great how-to post!
June 19th, 2009 at 7:56 amI actually use a few of these with tea candles out in one of our buildings for light. The glass shields the candles from the wind nicely. Old soup cans with holes bunched in them in interesting patterns can also be used in this way.
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/ls_basic_construction/article/0,,DIY_14084_2273930,00.html
June 19th, 2009 at 7:57 amGreat idea again dear Willi!!!!! I think I will make some for the house in VC for July 4th. They would be awesome hanging in the two big locust trees. How fun.
June 19th, 2009 at 10:36 am[...] Candle Lantern How To | DigginFood [...]
June 20th, 2009 at 6:34 amYou know, I’ve always wondered how those are made. Now, I can do it. Thanks.~~Dee
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:15 amVery cute Willi! They could also do double duty to hold little bouquets. We had some like these in the trees around our wedding location and they were very pretty.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:40 amSunset magazine linked to this project on its website, too!
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July 13th, 2009 at 2:00 pmI’ve always planned on doing such a project. You and our current rain have me convinced that now is the time to start.
March 25th, 2010 at 10:03 amThank you for making it look easy enough for even me to do it.
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July 20th, 2010 at 4:03 pmIm a big fan of candles lol, i might just try to make something like this with beads i have left.
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