How to assemble a paper lantern from China. How to make a DIY Chinese sky lantern

The sky lanterns that came to us from the Celestial Empire are called "Hum Loy" or "Hum Fey" in their homeland. Such lanterns are very popular not only in Asian countries, but throughout the world. Chinese sky lanterns are used in many celebrations, flash mobs, and in Thailand there is even a separate holiday, during which residents of the country and guests launch lanterns into the sky en masse. Recently, sky lanterns have become popular in our country, they can be purchased in different stores, but you can also do it yourself, which we will try right now.

So, before we start, let's watch a flashlight video:

There are many ways to make sky lanterns, but the simplest of them allows you to do this without much effort and expense.

We will need:
- Ordinary garbage bags for 30 liters. (it is not advised to take larger bags, as they are usually made of thicker polyethylene);
- Stationery tape;
- Wire diameter 0.5 mm;
- And also a tablet of dry fuel.

The materials have been collected. You can start the process of making a flashlight. The balloon that we will launch into the sky is made from several packages. It is advised to use two or three bags, depending on the air temperature. In winter, for example, you can be content with one package, on a summer evening a ball of two will launch, and in the afternoon in hot weather - of three. First of all, we cut off the packages along the soldering line and insert one of them into the other. The resulting seam with adhesive tape.

Next, you need to take care of the holder for our burner, which we will make from wire. To do this, we need two pieces of aluminum wire 40 cm long, which need to be twisted around the candle.

The packages will be attached to the holder, so special clips must be made at the ends.

Homemade sky lantern is ready.

It remains only to take dry fuel, which we will use as fuel. One tablet should be broken into four even parts. In some cases, the flashlight may not take off immediately. The reason for this may be the severity of the fuel. In such cases, you should wait a bit until some of the fuel burns out.

Chinese or as they are also called - sky lanterns, despite all their simplicity and uncomplicatedness, won millions of hearts around the world. Burning paper domes in the night sky look amazing. Most often, they are launched by couples in honor of the end of a romantic evening.

But due to the growing popularity of paper lanterns, mass launches of them are organized all over the world (for example, during citywide festivities). It - a win-win: spectacular and at the same time inexpensive. If you are fascinated by this unique invention, you must have wondered: How to make a Chinese lantern yourself? And isn't it too difficult? If you want to know the answers, just read this article to the end.

How to make a Chinese lantern: 3 steps

Do sky lattern DIY is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. All you need is rice paper, wire, a special flame retardant compound, foil and dry fuel (or any equivalent). Now let's define the sequence of actions.

Stage 1: Making a paper dome

The dome of a Chinese lantern is usually made from rice paper. It is paper that is the most important component of the device, so its choice must be approached with all seriousness. For to make the flashlight fly, paper weight should not exceed 25g per 1 square meter. To date, only rice paper (or a plastic bag, but more on that later) meets these requirements. Decide on the shape of the flashlight. It can be a heart, a pyramid or a square. Then cut out four equal parts of 110 x 100 cm from paper and glue them, leaving intact the place where the frame will be attached. The easiest and fastest way to glue the parts in the form of "petals". Use a minimum of glue. Otherwise, the paper will simply sag and become unusable.

After all parts are glued, soak flame retardant paper. This composition will protect it from getting wet and burning. A flashlight should glow, not burn! For impregnation, it is better to use a regular cotton swab.

As an alternative rice paper, you can use a regular trash bag. Of course, such a dome will not look aesthetically pleasing at all. But if you really want to make a flashlight yourself, but not at hand the right material, cellophane option is also possible. In this case, you do not need to glue or cut anything.

Stage 2: We make the frame.

To make the frame, you will need ordinary copper wire. It is desirable that it be thin - 0.5-1mm. From it make a ring, the diameter of which is equal to the diameter of the neck of the dome. Then attach two wires to it crosswise. The point where the stripes intersect should be the center of the frame. It is here, in the center, that the burner will be located. The frame is ready!

Now you need to fix the paper dome on the wire ring. This can be done with glue or tape.

What if you don't have wire? Don't worry, there is an alternative to everything. For the frame, thin sticks made of light wood or bamboo are ideal. Some craftsmen know how to make the “base” of a flashlight even from young birch branches!

3. We make a burner.

Without flaming element the flashlight will not be able to rise into the sky. The burner itself is usually made of foil. All you need is to make a tiny cup and fix it at the intersection of the wire lines. And what, exactly, will burn?

There are many options here. The most common is half or a quarter of a tablet of dry fuel. It’s better not to take a kiss, otherwise you won’t have time to blink an eye, as your creation will turn into ashes. Another popular option is a cloth soaked in liquid wax, alcohol, or any arc flammable liquid.

That's basically it! Now you can safely go outside and launch a flashlight made by yourself. Just remember to bring matches or a lighter.

How to start a homemade flashlight

One can only judge one's own success in making a Chinese lantern after its launch. Therefore, put dry fuel or a wax-soaked cloth into the burner and set it on fire. If you are launching a flashlight for the first time, ask a friend to help you by holding the dome of the flashlight to did not touch the fire. Of course, paper impregnated with flame retardant has very little chance of catching fire, but it is better to exclude this scenario altogether.

Wait for the air in the flashlight to heat up. In no case do not try to force its takeoff. Many seek to throw a flashlight or in some other way raise it up. When the air inside becomes hot enough, it will take off on its own. If your Chinese lantern smoothly started moving up, you can consider your craft quite successful.

If you wish, you can try to decorate the paper lantern to your liking. For example, on the dome you can write declaration of love or birthday wishes. To do this, use markers that contrast with the paper (for example, a dark blue marker for pink paper). Only in this case will your message be noticeable. You can also try to decorate the flashlight or stick a picture on it. It all depends on your imagination and taste.

Common misconception- this is that rice paper can be replaced with ordinary paper. It is not true. Plain paper is too heavy to lift up when exposed to warm air. Therefore, if rice paper you didn’t have it, and you basically don’t want to use a garbage bag, you shouldn’t try to make a sky lantern out of plain paper. Don't be discouraged if the flashlight launch fails. Not everyone is able to launch even the finished product. Just mentally praise yourself for your efforts and set off to accomplish new feats. In the end, you will definitely be able to launch a homemade Chinese lantern.

This article will talk about making Chinese lanterns with your own hands, which you can do yourself or involve children in creativity. Such lanterns are perfect for decorating a room, a garden, decorating a Christmas tree or a corner of dreams. They can easily turn your evening into the most unusual fairy tale. Indeed, in them we very often read about the hall, which is decorated with thousands of multi-colored lights, about a mysterious person who helps to light the way for the main character. So arm yourself with everything you need and let's start creating.

Option for children

In this article, we propose to view the most popular schemes for making Chinese lanterns. And here is the first of them - a children's flashlight.

In order to make such a bauble, you need to take colored paper, pencils, a ruler, scissors, glue, sparkles, satin ribbons and colored felt-tip pens.

A strip must be cut off from any edge of the leaf, in the future it will be a handle. Its width should be about two cm. We bend the remaining paper in half and draw a line on it, which is four cm from the edge. It is up to this strip that we will cut the flashlight.

Then, along the entire remaining length of the paper, we mark lines, 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 look, if there are traces, then we erase them with an eraser. Now we fasten the edges with glue or paper clips. On one side we attach a handle for a flashlight. Now you can decorate the flashlight with sparkles, tinsel, threads. You can also use plain paper instead of colored paper. white color, in the future it can be decorated at will.

According to all traditions

Manufacturing process for the following Chinese lantern from paper can be traced on the example of a master class.

In order to perform these procedures, it is necessary to prepare red cardboard, glue, scissors, a template, a pencil, a red thread and a needle, silver or gold paint.

Find and print a template on the Internet, apply it to cardboard and cut out the entire blank.

In no case 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 with a needle and make a small hole in the upper part of our flashlight. In the same way, we collect lower part flashlight. We make a small brush for the bottom of the decoration. With the help of silver paint we draw a variety of patterns. They can be pre-made on stencils. We apply such a stencil to a 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.

We put 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 in the shape of a square. We twist the wire around the candle and attach it to the straws along the edges. We kindle a candle and let it warm up a little.

Decor for products

Well, the next point that we want to make out is one of the ways to decorate sky lanterns.

For work, we need decorated paper, glue gun, hole punch and simple batteries.

About seventy holes need to be punched on decorated paper with a hole punch.

Then we unfold the already prepared base ball, or take the one that we did in the last master class. We begin to glue it with these circles according to the husk principle.

To make an airy Chinese lantern, you will need:
- 1 wide adhesive 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 liquid for kindling a fire or medical alcohol;
- 1 roll of tracing paper;
- ruler, tape measure or centimeter tape for measurements;
- thin wire;
- 1 pack of cotton.

Chinese sky lantern: manufacturing technique

Having prepared all of the above materials, you can begin to assemble a flying flashlight. It is quite simple - the wick and the outer shell are fixed on the wire frame.

First, take a trash bag, open it, and then measure the diameter. From tracing paper, make a continuation of the package and attach it to it with tape. After that, cut strips 1.5-2.5 cm wide from a piece of cardboard. Attach the strips from the outside to the tracing paper with adhesive tape.

Make a wire frame for a Chinese lantern. To do this, twist a circle from the wire and additionally attach 2 pieces of wire crosswise to it. So you will be able to stiffen your design and there will be where to attach the wick.

On the wire in the middle of the frame, fasten a ball of cotton wool soaked in advance with firelighter liquid or medical alcohol. It is advisable to immediately prepare several wicks, and also check how well they are ignited, what is the size of the flame. Thanks to this, you will be able to choose the perfect wick for your product.

Put a bag of tracing paper on the frame and start the Chinese lantern. If the resulting design seems small to you, you can make it larger. To do this, just glue a few garbage bags, 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 has become strong, gusty, reschedule the launch of flashlights to another time.

Light the fuse and, with the help of a friend or assistant, spread 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 reach up, release it. Do this slowly, lightly holding the product by the rim. And then you just have to enjoy the stunningly beautiful flight of a Chinese lantern in the night sky.

A Chinese lantern (another name is “sky lantern”) is a light flying dome that smoothly floats upwards under the influence of air heated by a burning candle. Sky lanterns were invented a very long time ago - in 200-300 AD. e. and were used to instill fear in enemy troops. Nowadays, no one is afraid of them, but on the contrary, they have become a symbol of faith, hope and love. Every year more and more festivals are organized with the mass launch of Chinese lanterns.

We can also make a sky lantern, and without much effort and expense. For this we need:

- garbage bags of 30 liters (for larger bags, polyethylene is thicker and heavier);
- straws for a cocktail;
- candles;
- tape (or glue).

First, we glue the dome of the flashlight from two or three packages (in winter, one package will fly on a frosty day, but at least two are required in summer). To connect two packages, cut one of them along the solder line and insert one into the other. After that, glue the seam with tape.

Then we assemble a cross from the straws, connecting them with adhesive tape. We wind the adhesive tape to a minimum, because the design must be light so that it can take off.

Then we attach candles to this cross - with adhesive tape or glue:

We insert the resulting design into the bag and fix the ends of the cross with tape:

That's all, the sky lantern is assembled, it remains only to launch it. We call an assistant to us (one cannot cope with this matter). The assistant lifts and carefully straightens the dome of the flashlight, making sure that the candles are as far away from the walls of the dome as possible (otherwise they will quickly melt). And we light candles.

The flashlight does not take off immediately, so we wait for the air under the flashlight dome to warm up enough. To make this happen faster, put the lantern on the table. We sit and wait for a miracle.

And this miracle is happening! The flashlight does not want to take off for a long time, but when the candles burn out to half (lose half their weight), it rises above the table.

And slowly rises to the ceiling.

The crosspiece and the flashlight burner can be made differently. We take two pieces of thin aluminum wire (0.5 mm) about 40 cm each and twist them around the can of the “pill” candle. At the ends of the resulting cross we make clips for the dome.

Candle jar is a flashlight burner. Pieces of a dry fuel tablet are ignited in it.