Light up the night with a lantern made of translucent polymer clay. Donna Kato of Prairie Craft Company explains how to make a lantern for any size candle to create a warm glow indoors or out. Materials:
Votive candle in candleholder
Flexible piece of cardboard to make a fat tube to fit around a votive candle
Paper to cover cardboard
Stapler
Two packages translucent Premo! SculpeyB.
One package white Premo! Sculpey
Pasta machine or rolling pin (Note: After utensils have been used to condition clay, they cannot be used in food preparation.)
Razor blade or craft knife for trimming clay
Star-shaped cutter
Aluminum foil
- Roll the cardboard into a tube that fits around the votive candleholder and staple together (figure A). This will be the form around which the lantern will be shaped. Cover the cardboard tube with a piece of paper.
- Condition a piece of translucent clay by running it through a pasta machine about 10 times on the thickest setting (figure B). Conditioning is necessary to reduce air bubbles in the clay. A rolling pin will yield similar results.
- Cut the clay to a rectangle about 4" by 5"--long enough to wrap around the cardboard form--and cut a 1" strip the height of the lantern (figure C).
- Wrap the rectangle around the cardboard form, and join the seam with the 1"-wide strip of clay (figure D). Rub the clay seam with your finger until it is no longer visible.
- Edge the lantern with a twisted rope of translucent and white clay. Place a rope of translucent clay and one of white clay side by side and twist together (figure E). Use your hands to roll the clay into a long tube, and wrap it around the top and bottom of the lantern (figure F).
- Condition one-fourth of the white clay, then roll out to a thickness of 1/16". Cut out tiny star shapes (figure G), and place them on the lantern.
- When the lantern is complete, carefully remove the cardboard form, leaving the paper attached to the clay. Bake the lantern in a preheated 275-degree oven for about 15 minutes (30 minutes for each 1/4" of thickness). Cover the piece with a foil tent while it's baking to reduce the chances of browning the clay.
- When the lantern is cool, remove the paper backing.
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