Sky lantern is also called chinese lantern. It is a flying structure made of paper, which is stretched over a bamboo frame. Sky lanterns have become popular relatively recently. But interest in them is growing higher turnover. And those who decide to launch this flashlight at least once into the evening sky become its lover forever.
The first launch of a Chinese lantern occurred approximately two thousand years ago. It was invented by the then famous commander Zhuge Liang. According to historical facts, the shape of the lantern was made according to the shape of Liang's own hat. First sky lantern was made from oily rice paper stretched over a bamboo frame. There was a small candle in the middle, which allowed the lantern to rise into the sky due to the hot air.
The Chinese believe that by launching a lantern into the sky, they pay tribute to nature and higher beings. And nature rewards them with the return of spring and light to their land every year.
Making a Chinese lantern with your own hands is not special labor. But you still have to try a little. Perhaps the first flashlight will not be entirely successful, but with a little effort and remaining calm, you will achieve the expected result.
First, let's look at what elements a Chinese lantern consists of, these are:
- dome
- frame
- burner
We figured out what the flashlight consists of. Now let's start making the flashlight itself, and analyze each of the elements separately.
Dome
The ideal dome for a sky lantern, of course, would be rice paper. But this paper is not made from cheap materials. Therefore, an alternative would be a regular garbage bag. You need to choose a package whose thickness will be minimal.
For a dome, two bags with a volume of at least thirty liters will be enough; if possible, it is better to take more. Cut off the bottom of one bag and glue them with tape. The dome is ready. You can move on to the next stage.
Frame
The frame is the second main element of a Chinese lantern. It is a ring with the diameter of the neck of the bag. It can be made from any thin wire with an approximate diameter of 1 mm. The ring can also be attached with tape. Then we attach two wires to the ring with a cross. The intersection point should be exactly in the middle of the ring.
Burner
Regular foil is suitable for the burner, since its weight is minimal and it is not susceptible to fire. We make a small cup and attach it to the intersection point, on the cross. There is one small problem left. What will burn in the middle of the cup? There are quite a lot of options here. A piece of cloth soaked in alcohol works well. Or a quarter tablet of dry alcohol.
The flashlight is ready. That's basically all the work. There remains the last point, for which all this work was started. This is the long awaited launch of the flashlight.
Launching an air lantern
First, let's straighten our flashlight and fill it with air. We hold it in a vertical position. Place the ignited dry fuel into the burner. We make sure that the dome of the flashlight is maximally straightened and the burner is exactly in the center.
Place it carefully on the ground and wait until hot air fills the flashlight. There is no need to assist take-off. Just be patient. You yourself will feel that the flashlight is asking to go. We let go and enjoy its flight in the night, starry sky.
Want to surprise your girlfriend, make a Chinese lantern together and launch it into the night sky, The girl will definitely appreciate this romance and remember it for a long time. sky lattern You can make it for your holiday, and write your names on the lantern. Chinese lanterns - fun not only for lovers, it’s fun to launch them with the whole family together with the children, competing to see whose flashlight will fly higher and further. Following the instructions from, you can easily do Chinese sky lattern with your own hands.
A little history.
First chinese lantern was invented about two thousand years ago in China during the era of the Three Kingdoms by the famous cunning commander Zhuge Liang. Chinese lanterns served as a means of exchanging information on the battlefield; they were then called heavenly candles. It is known that the lantern was made of rice paper stretched over a bamboo frame. In the middle of the lantern there was a lit candle, it exuded hot air, due to which the flashlight rose into the air. And the shape of the Chinese lantern is taken from the hat worn by Zhuge Liang. Later, during the Yuan Dynasty, Chinese lanterns became simply a symbol of hope and good wishes and were used in religious rituals. On paper lanterns they wrote wishes and hung them outside their house.
How to make a Chinese lantern with your own hands.
The shape of a Chinese lantern depends entirely on your imagination, the material also, the main thing is that it is very easy to lift into the skies. And the fuel for the flashlight is ordinary medical alcohol, you can use dry alcohol, dry fuel, acetone or solvent. Wire is used for the frame. Burner with cotton wool soaked in alcohol or a tablet of dry fuel.
So, let's get started, let's divide our work into three stages: making the dome, frame and burner.
How to make a dome for a Chinese lantern.
For the flashlight dome we will need the cheapest and thinnest plastic bag for garbage, volume 80 l. or more. You don’t have to take a gloomy black bag; choose a cheerful blue or lilac. So, as you can see, it’s very simple, you didn’t have to do anything, and the sky lantern dome is ready.
Making the frame.
Let's move on to the second stage and make a wire frame for the Chinese lantern. For this we need thin wire with a cross section of 0.5 - 1 mm. We make a ring of wire, the diameter should correspond to the lower edge of our dome. We attach two wires crosswise. And also, instead of wire, you can use juice tubes for a circle or square for the frame, inserting them one into another or wrapping them with tape, and gluing them to the dome, you will get a light frame.
Burner.
And finally, the third and final stage of work is the manufacture of the burner. You can take a light one metal container from under the candles, tablets.
To make a burner, we need the most ordinary baking foil; you can use foil from a chocolate bar. We make a cup from foil, small size and strengthen it on the crosspiece of the frame. Then the finished frame with a burner is taped to the bottom edge of the dome.
As fuel for an aerial lantern, you can use a piece of dry fuel or cotton wool soaked in alcohol. You can soak a piece of fabric with liquid fuel and paraffin and roll it up; in this case, it is better to make two or three such burners. Light one before starting, see how long it will burn and the height of the flame; if the flame is high, trim the spare fabric burner, and if it burns out quickly, add fabric. The flight altitude of the flashlight depends on a properly made burner.
That's it, quick and easy - the Chinese sky lantern is ready! You can go start it.
How to launch a Chinese sky lantern.
First, decide on a place to launch the Chinese sky lantern. When you launch a sky lantern, it is better to choose some wasteland as a launch site, preferably without trees, to avoid fire, and the lantern does not get tangled in branches when launching, and the weather should not be windy.
Straighten the flashlight and fill it with air (take the flashlight by the lower part, the frame and move your hands up and immediately down, as if you were covering something with a cap, our flashlight acts as a cap). Hold the flashlight in a vertical position, and immediately put fuel or a piece of cotton wool soaked in alcohol into the burner and light it. Be sure to make sure that the canopy of the air lantern is straightened so that you do not set it on fire or melt it! Now you can place the lantern on the ground, holding it from below until the air inside the lantern warms up. When the sky lantern is ready to fly, you will see that it will seem to be trying to take off on its own. You can let go!
When your Chinese sky lantern takes off, the joy you will feel when you launch it into the sky will outshine all the difficulty in making it! When launching a sky lantern, don't forget to make a wish.
The flashlight did not take off, what to do:
It is necessary to lighten the design of the lantern, but in order not to lose rigidity, perhaps just a few extra grams. There should be a thin wire in the frame, a thin bag for the canopy, a large volume of the canopy, the ratio of volume and lifting force plays a big role here. Try to lighten the burner. In the latter case, try to remove the frame completely, strengthen only the cross with the burner on the dome.
This article will talk about making Chinese lanterns with your own hands, which you can make yourself or involve children in creativity. These lanterns are perfect for decorating a room, garden, Christmas tree or dream corner. They can easily turn your evening into the most unusual fairy tale. After all, in them we very often read about a hall that is decorated with thousands of multi-colored lights, about a mysterious person who helps illuminate the path for the main character. So arm yourself with everything you need and let’s start creating.
Option for children
In this article we suggest viewing the most popular schemes making Chinese lanterns. And here is the first of them - a children's flashlight.
In order to make such a trinket, you need to take colored paper, pencils, a ruler, scissors, glue, glitter, satin ribbons and colored felt-tip pens.
It is necessary to cut a strip from any edge of the leaf; in the future this will be the handle. Its width should be about two cm. We bend the remaining paper in half and draw a line on it that is located at a distance of four cm from the edge. It is up to this strip that we will cut the flashlight.
Then we mark lines along the entire remaining length of the paper, about one to one and a half cm wide. We begin to make cuts along the indicated lines with scissors. We do this from the place of the fold, and stop near the marked line.
We open the paper and see if there are traces left, then erase them with an eraser. Now fasten the edges with glue or paper clips. On one side we attach a handle for the flashlight. Now you can decorate the lantern with glitter, tinsel, and thread. Instead of colored paper, you can also use plain paper, white, in the future you can decorate it as you wish.
According to all traditions
The process of making the next Chinese paper lantern can be traced using the example of a master class.
In order to perform these procedures, you need to prepare red cardboard, glue, scissors, template, pencil, red thread and needle, silver or gold paint.
Find and print a template on the Internet, apply it to cardboard and cut out the entire blank.
Under no circumstances should these parts be separated; they should specifically be similar, with a small accordion.
We glue the first and last parts together. The next step is to connect all the sides. Next, take a thread and a needle and make a small hole in the upper part of our flashlight. In the same way we assemble the lower part of the flashlight. Make a small tassel for the bottom of the decoration. Using silver paint we draw various patterns. They can be pre-made on stencils. We apply such a stencil to the flashlight and spray paint. Let it dry and the flashlight is ready.
sky lattern
On the next step by step instructions You can consider making a sky flying lantern.
To make this type of Chinese lantern, you will need tissue or rice paper, straws, copper wire, a candle and glue.
Lay pieces of tissue paper on top of each other and cut out rectangles. Then tightly fasten the edges together with glue. Then we make a small lining for the straws and fold them into a square shape. We twist the wire around the candle and attach it to the straws along the edges. Light the candle and let it warm up a little.
Decor for products
Well, the next point that we want to look at is one of the ways to decorate sky lanterns.
For work we will need decorated paper, glue gun, hole punch and simple batteries.
On decorated paper you need to punch about seventy holes using a hole punch.
Then we unfold the ready-made base ball, or take the one we made in the last master class. We begin to paste it with these circles according to the husk principle.
To make an air Chinese lantern you will need:
- 1 wide tape;
- 1 square of cardboard 30x30 or 40x40 cm;
- 1 pack of thin colored garbage bags with a volume of 120 l;
- 1 bottle of fire starter or medical alcohol;
- 1 roll of tracing paper;
- ruler, tape measure or measuring tape for measurements;
- thin wire;
- 1 pack of cotton wool.
Chinese sky lantern: manufacturing technique
Having prepared all the above materials, you can begin assembling the flying flashlight. It is quite simple - a wick and an outer shell are attached to a wire frame.
First, take a garbage bag, open it, and then measure the diameter. Make a continuation of the bag from tracing paper and attach it to it with tape. After this, cut strips 1.5-2.5 cm wide from a piece of cardboard. Attach the strips from the outside to the tracing paper using tape.
Make a wire frame for a Chinese lantern. To do this, twist a circle out of wire and additionally attach 2 pieces of wire to it crosswise. This way you will be able to give rigidity to your structure and have somewhere to attach the wick.
On the wire in the middle of the frame, secure a ball of cotton wool pre-soaked in fire starter fluid or medical alcohol. It is advisable to prepare several wicks at once, and also check how well they ignite and what the size of the flame is. Thanks to this, you can choose the perfect wick for your product.
Place a bag of tracing paper on the frame and launch a Chinese lantern. If the resulting design seems small to you, you can make it larger. To do this, simply glue several garbage bags together, take large quantity cardboard, tracing paper and other materials.
Chinese sky lanterns: launch rules
It is allowed to launch flying lanterns only in open areas, away from parking lots, tall buildings, forests and dry meadows. And most importantly, if the wind becomes strong and gusty, reschedule the launch of the flashlights to another time.
Light the wick and, with the help of an assistant - a friend or - straighten the dome so that it does not come into contact with the flame. Then carefully lower the Chinese lantern to the ground, holding it by the frame. This is necessary for faster heating of the air inside the structure.
After about one minute, raise the flashlight to chest level. As soon as it starts to pull upward, release it. Do this slowly, lightly holding the product by the rim. And then all you have to do is enjoy the stunningly beautiful flight of the Chinese lantern in the night sky.
Flying lanterns float across the night sky: very interesting, charming, romantic. An open fire heats the air in them according to the same principle as in balloons. First launched in China over 2,000 years ago, the first flying lanterns were constructed from bamboo rims with paper parts attached to them, creating the shape of a bag or cube. In the lower, open part, a fire source was fixed (most often a burning candle or a rag soaked in oil) and the hot atmosphere filled the lantern. As the flashlight cooled, it calmly descended back to the ground.
These handmade “night birds” still excite the imagination, appearing in paintings, books, movies and cartoons. Modern flying lanterns are very similar to their predecessors, only now they are safer thanks to the addition of a fire-resistant substance applied to the paper. And unlike in years past, many are writing messages or wishes on their lanterns before sending them off into the sky.
You will need:
- packaging of tissue (cosmetic, thin wrapping) paper of any color;
- any product that greatly increases the fire resistance of paper (for example, MP FR);
- clothesline;
- clothespins;
- glue;
- kraft paper;
- bamboo, 2.5 cm in diameter, approximately 122 cm in length;
- knife;
- sandpaper;
- wood glue;
- copper wire;
- thin staples;
- a square of thin cardboard, side - 5 cm;
- cotton ball;
- ethyl alcohol (from 70%);
- aluminium foil;
- duct tape.
1. Pin 4 sheets of tissue paper on a clothesline and spray them fire retardant, avoiding the very corners where the sheets are caught with clothespins. Let the paper dry completely.
2. Adhere each sheet of treated tissue/thin wrapping paper to a sheet of untreated tissue paper, overlapping lengthwise and using a thin, even layer of adhesive.
3. On craft paper, draw an image representing the top half of the mitten. The finished lantern will look like a hot air balloon made of 4 pieces combined: make 4 of these “half-mittens” from kraft paper and tape them together. So that the lower flat edges of the half-mittens look down, and only they form together the open part of the flashlight: you will get a layout of your flashlight and will be able to adjust it where necessary. When you are completely satisfied with the design, remove the adhesive tape.
4. Using the kraft paper model as a reference, cut out the desired shape from the tissue paper, creating 4 slightly curved pieces with one straight edge. Glue the elements of the flashlight together, leaving, as in the point with the layout, only the edge at the bottom where the 4 parts have a straight edge is open: this is the lower part of the flashlight, where we will insert the burning element. Naturally, the sprayed side of each sheet of tissue paper should go inside the lantern.
5. Make a bamboo ring. Split bamboo stick into thin strips, very carefully and slowly moving the knife down the length of the pole. Test the strips for flexibility by gently bending them with both hands. If you find one that is flexible enough, sand it sandpaper until completely smooth. Then make a rim from the finished strip and fix it at the joint with glue.
6. Install made from copper wire a suitable-sized letter “X” into the circle of the base of the lantern (into a bamboo ring), using thin staples, secure everything in place. Cover a cardboard square with foil and secure it in the center of the "X" with tape, staples, or glue.
7. Make a cup out of foil: large enough to hold the cotton ball, but not allow it to fall out. Glue the cup to the center of the stand.
8. Attach the previously made part of the flashlight to the bottom ( open part) to the circle-stand using adhesive tape and remember: it works like a balloon, so the cup with foil should go inside.
9. Carry a flashlight outside in the evening. Soak a cotton ball in ethyl alcohol (70% or higher) and place the wet cotton ball in a foil bowl. Light the ball, carefully secure the bottom of the flashlight and hold the flashlight in your hands, ensuring the accumulation inside warm air. When the sides become hot and you begin to feel the flashlight slipping out of your palms, release it.
Additions and warnings:
Garden pegs or poles can become good source bamboo;
- Coping with a flying flashlight is easier with a couple;
When you design the form hot air balloon, Make sure that top part certainly larger, more voluminous than the lower one;
- Alternative view"fuel" can be made by immersion toilet paper into melted wax;
- A hoop made of copper wire can be attached to the top of the flashlight - it will provide the latter better shape;
- Never use such lanterns on very windy days - there is a high risk of fire;
- When it rains, it’s simply not possible to run such a lantern;
- Remember that your flying flashlight is a potential fire hazard and you will be responsible for any damage it may cause.
