Tin Lantern

Make your Own Homemade Lantern

This project is inspired by lanterns long ago. A simple project to do with your kids and learn a bit about the historic techniques used in lantern making.

These are the supplies that you will need to make a punched tin lantern out of a soup can:

Clean empty soup can

Hammer

Nails

Safety glasses

Piece of paper

Scissors

Pencil or Pen

Towel

We look to the past for inspiration for lighting our homes and lives. Historic Deerfield’s collection of eighteenth and nineteenth-century lighting equipment includes fat lamps, candlesticks, sconces, oil lamps and lanterns. Here are a few examples from our collection, we will focus on a punched or pierced tin lantern that you can make at home from a soup can!

Lighting devices made from tin-covered sheet iron were known as tin lanterns, punched tin or pierced tin lanterns, and barn lanterns.

In the detail shot above, notice how the tinner used a variety of punch shapes to create the design at the top of this lantern. There are circles, x’s, and triangles. It takes many different tools to cut and shape the sheet of tinned iron into the various parts of the lantern and also different shaped punches to make the patterned designs.

Fill the clean empty soup can with water and place it upright in your freezer. As water freezes, it expands, so fill it half full with water; wait two or three hours, then add more water to within an inch of the rim. (If you fill the can all the way up to the top at first, the bottom of the can may bubble out and make your lantern wobbly). Freeze overnight. 

Take the paper and cut a piece that measures the height and circumference of the soup can. Create a pattern on the paper that you will use to punch out your design.

Remove the can from the freezer and place on a folded bath towel. Tape the piece of paper with the design on it onto the can.

Put on your safety glasses. Use a hammer and nail as your tin punching tools. Carefully hammer the nail into each mark on your pattern. It will take two-three blows to pierce the tin can. Adults should help children with this step. Everyone should be mindful of their fingers and hands. The towel provides stability for the frozen can and the ice in the can provides just enough resistance so that you don’t crush the can when you punch the holes with the nail.

After you finish punching out the design, remove the pattern and rinse the can under warm water to remove any remaining ice. Let air dry or use a towel to dry the inside. 

Light your lantern! We suggest using a battery-powered tea light or votive candle. If you use a real tea light or candle, be careful as you light it.

Our pierced tin soup can is on the left with a simple vertical and diagonal line pattern. The lantern to the right is a reproduction lantern with circular patterns. Note that our tin lantern has the holes punched from the outside in. A true punched tin lantern has the punched holes from the inside out. This feature allows for the lantern to be used outside in the wind which keeps the candle from blowing out.

Project Author Claire Carlson