DIY Paper Lantern

Like previous yarn lantern instructable, my wife and i decided to purchase new lightings to change feeling of the environment but the products which we liked expensive as hell.

I created cheaper version of it by spending few hours, mine is not satisfying enough but maybe you can get inspired and develop alternate versions of it by following steps.

- 15 meters of copper wire around 3~5mm diameter (mine was some kind of steel alloy)

- industrial packaging paper 150x100cm

- 3cm diameter of rod, preferably from walnut tree

- two light bulbs and housing

- 2 meters of cable + electricity plug

- nails, smallest as possible

I found rod from a hobby department of a local hardware store, it's grinded & polished and cost was about $5, packaging paper can be found from anywhere. cost probably less than a dollar. total cost was $18 to me

To the sake of economy i used some kind of steel alloy wire, it will be more stylish if you use small wood sticks to create a straight box. you might need a gripper to give it a shape

you might noticed the packaging paper isn't transparent enough to pass light, you have to crush and squeeze it to make it thinner. that's also gives a texture to it.

i created cross pathways while creating the cage to put the rod in there. put the rod at least %50 of the cage. otherwise cage will bend on any shake.

make sure bulbs doesn't touch to cage walls, they're getting hot after few minutes. otherwise you might get an olympic torch instead of a lantern.

Overlap the paper after that, paper needs to be slightly stretched, not too much, not less. use hot silicone or glue to bond each end.

well, i tried. not the same product at the mall but this one %90 cheaper. just spent 3 hours to it, you can do better by spending 6.