Patchwork Underground

Here’s two of the ones I made. Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the blow-by-blow tutorial or just read on for the full story.

It all started when I bought this cutie at the Bins…..

I was inspired. I needed more. Living in our solar powered school bus has made me a serious power miser. Running our lights during the nighttime when we’re just hanging out and playing music is kinda silly. Why waste battery power when we could just light up a bunch of candles for an even better lighting scenario?

I set to work thinking of ways to make more.

I started at the ReBuilding Center in Portland.  (It’s a lot like Bring Recycling in Eugene.) I bought a buncha random glass pieces off of old light fixtures, some ornamental random pieces and some copper wire. The first one I made was kinda silly because I was reluctant to hammer holes into the jar lid which makes up the hanging base where the candle sits. Instead, I used a ton of my precious copper wire to form a web underneath the lid. Dumb move.

But it’s still cute. Here’s a closeup of the burner piece I used for the top cap….

The second time around I saved a lot of wire by just poking holes into the lid with a nail and using those as hook spots.

Here’s a closeup of the second one I made the smart way. I used a nail to hammer 4 evenly spaced holes into the corners of the lid.

~**TUTORIAL**~

1. Get yer pieces together. You’ll need:

• 3-4 feet of wire (copper is $$ but really soft to work with…i got it used so it was affordable)
• a metal piece for the bottom (a mason jar lid is good)
• a metal thingie for the top cap (I used a gas burner piece one time and a drawer pull another time)
• and a fluted glass thingie from an old light fixture (MUST be flared - not a cylinder)

you’ll probably need the following tools, too:

• pliers
• metal snips/crappy scissors you don’t care about ruining
• hammer and nail

2. Start by going around the “waist” of the fluted glass thingie with the wire and twisting the ends together.

2. Using a hammer and nail, make 4 evenly spaced holes in the lid.

3. Thread a new piece of wire through one of the holes in the lid and twist to secure. then thread it under the loop you made around the waist of the fluted glass thingie.

4. Next, bring the copper back down to the lid and through the next hole. Twist and keep going around the lantern until you reach the point where you started, twist it off and cut the wire.

5. To form the handle, take another piece of wire and thread it through your top piece so that a loop is sticking up through it. I twisted my loop around itself to make it prettier but you can really do whatever you feel at this point.

6. When you’ve got the top piece the way you want it, you should have two ends of copper wire sticking down out of the top piece. I just hooked these around the “waist” belt of the fluted glass thingie and called it done.

Getting your tea light into these babies is a little tricky. I dropped it in and then lighted it with a match through the space between the lid and the shade. You could also invest in one of those stick lighters (refillable please!!) that people use for their BBQs. Hang them in bunches for an extra cute effect.

Enjoy!