DIY Candle Lanterns
Yesterday evening we drove across the lake for dinner with my Aunt Buffe and Uncle Ace at their house. When we arrived my aunt had the patio table all set, a bottle of wine chilling in the fridge, and a collection of adorable lanterns she’s made hanging from their dogwood tree.
I thought I’d share a few photos of the lanterns Buffe made. She got the idea from her friend Maren (who kindly shared her wonderful lentil soup recipe with me earlier this year). Maren made dozens of the lanterns a few summers back and hung them from the eves on her porch. When she and her husband Mike spent a few months in Paris this past winter, Maren collected glass yogurt jars and brought them back as gifts for her friends. The lantern pictured up top is made with one of these jars, but any small jar will do.
All you need to make your own lanterns is thin gauge wire, a collection of jars, glasses, or old light fixtures, and beads or button for embellishing. I want to make a few for gifts, and when I do so, I’ll post a step-by-step. In the meantime, check out the photos. You’ll see how easy these lanterns are to make and how pretty they look hanging from the trees on a lazy summer evening.
p.s. I couldn’t resist including this shot with our dog Domino relaxing under the candlelit tree. Isn’t he so cute?
I made these same lanterns with yogurt jars we brought back from France 2 years ago. I love them! Great photos.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:35 pmI love these! I wondered why I’ve been saving little jars, and now I know.
It would also be fun to wrap seaglass into the wires above the mouth (you could do a few more than 2), so the colors in the glass would catch the light. Oooh.
And you’ll have more trees soon enough that you might as well start stockpiling them for a marvelous party! Maybe under the deck.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:14 pmPenny–I think I may need to go on a trip to France just for the yogurt jars (and the cheese, and the bread, and the gardens…)
Mari–Love, love, love the sea glass idea! We should get together sometimes and get crafty!
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:49 pmI’m always up for getting crafty, Willi! And I obviously have access to a lot of wire-friendly snippers and twisters (not to mention my seaglass stash, which I’m still thinking of using for some type of chandelier to hang over the patio). Let me know when the mood strikes.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:31 pmI wish I could have been there for chilled wine and Acecdotes. Ah, memories. Your site is just beautiful.
June 5th, 2009 at 10:40 am[...] 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 [...]
June 18th, 2009 at 3:25 pm