Lantern Making

Last Sunday at the Bukit Beruntung Chapel Sunday School, we taught the children how to make lanterns.

These are things/tools that you need:

1. Wire
2. Pliers
3. Multi-colour Transparent papers
4. Pencil
5. Scissors
6. Glue
7. Poster colours (red, green, blue, white and black)
8. Palette
9. Brushes
10. Strings
11. Candles
12. Sticks (eg. wooden chopsticks)

And the steps are ...

1. Using the pliers, bend the wire to the desired shape of the lantern. For example, shape of a butterfly.
2. Using a pencil, wind another wire for the candle holder, and place it at an appropriate position in the shape.
3. Cut the transparent paper according to the shape. Cut in parts.
4. Glue the transparent paper to the wire. Don't put too much glue.
5. Paint/decorate the lantern.
6. Poke 2 holes on top of the lantern (one on each side) for the string to go through.
7. Place the candle.
8. Lastly, tie the stick to the string to hold the lantern.

Sounds easy? A lot of hard work - probably the first and the last time for me. Anyway, I managed to make a simple lantern for Jordan. I wrote his name on the lantern, and requested Yung Ling to draw a rooster's head and the Chinese character for chicken, because Jordan is born in the Year of the Rooster.

The mid-autumn festival is this Friday (6 October 2006). We plan to take Jordan for a stroll round our housing area with the lanterns. Nai Kyn has made one for Jordan too - it is in the shape of a car - blue and orange colour.