If you arrived at this page via either of the images below, you know where you are.  If you arrived from outside this photography website (for example, you are searching for lantern DIY resources), I bid you welcome.  Please take a look around.  There’s a menu above. The instructions on how to make these lanterns follow below.

MAKE ONE:

Start with IKEA preserve jar(s) product name “Korken”. Lose the lid (the only wastage from this project) and keep everything else shown in the first picture below. Flip the latch and reinstall, held in place by the little metal clip-loop, as shown below.

For a hanger, run two equal lengths of 1/16” airplane cable (you pick the length for your location) that travel up, respectively, from each of the latch and the lid-hinge on the opposite side of the metal rim. Where these meet up top, that is your hanging point. (You could instead use a continuous loop of wire, but wind movement would slowly cause your loop to go off centre an your lantern to lean.) Crimp the ends of the cables into micro-loops around each of the latch and lid-hinge. (Crimping is fun. You buy matching-width aluminum crimps [“duplex sleeves”] when you buy the airplane cable. Use vice grips to squish the crimp down on the wire – finally a project where its actually OK that vice grips deform everything they touch.)

The flame can be any suitably sized candle, but I use restaurant-supply liquid wax cartridges, which go for 18 hours. I also line the bottom inside of the jars with the rubber lid seal, to keep the cartridges centred when the lanterns sway. For easy lighting, it’s good to have a butane lighter with a flexible goose neck that can reach down into lanterns hanging above head height. And to extinguish high hanging lanterns, a rolled up magazine or reed placemat (say you’ve been eating under the stars earlier in the evening … you would perhaps have some) works with a bit of practice.

Also: Can I just say, as a result of producing this page, how much I suddenly admire product photographers. Making these images was fussy, tedious, aggravating. Getting the accompanying instructions to make any sense (do they?) was tough too.