Covering your lantern

Paper, cloth and plastic

Now you've built your frame and wired up your lights, you're ready to cover the frame.

Paper

Paper is the thing that most often comes to mind, and for good reason. It's lightweight, can be translucent (and can be made more so, treated properly) and come in lots of colours. It can be cut and pasted easily, and if chosen carefully can be fairly strong and even a bit water-resistant.

To adhere paper to your frame, mix a starch-based paste such as Yamato Rice Paste, or wheat-starch paste by Lineco, with PVA or ordinary white glue. The white glue allows the paste mix to dry a little faster and stronger, and the paste slows down the drying time of the white glue (increases the "open time") so you can slide the paper around a little to place it properly or stretch it a little tauter on the frame.

This longer open time means that you will need to use something to hold your paper in place as you work your way around the frame. Wooden spring clothespins are just the ticket.

What you'll need:

White glue - Bondfast, Weldbond, or Elmer's will do. It needs to dry clear to look best.
Starch-based paste - Yamato rice paste, Lineco starch paste (comes as a powder, you'll have to cook it up) or possibly flour paste (Lantern Lab will be testing this along with other adhesives soon. Stay tuned.)
A small dish or cup to mix your paste and glue.
A small container of water.
A stir stick or two.
Brushes to apply the mixture. Choose a narrow brush for applying adhesive mix on a narrow frame, or a wider brush for layering paper on the surface. Either one should be a soft bristle brush, which is just springy enough to spread the adhesive well.
Scrap paper for pasting out pieces of paper - newspapers or an old phone book are fine for this.
A roll of paper towel for cleanup.
Your paper.
Your frame.

What to do:

Cut a piece of paper a bit larger than the size of the area you want to cover. You'll be trimming it down later, and the extra allows you some leeway to move the paper around a bit and to wrap the edges around the frame. If you make the pieces about two inches bigger in each direction you'll end up with a one-inch border, which should be plenty.
Take the paste and white glue. Put the paste in first and then about half that amount of white glue in your dish.
Mix the paste and white glue thoroughly. The mixture should be thick and smooth, about like toothpaste. If the paste mix does not spread into a thin layer, add a tiny bit of water. You don't want it to be drippy and messy though.
Using a small bristle brush, brush the paste mix onto the frame in the area where you want to apply the paper. Apply it all around the frame, so you can wrap the edge of the paper around the reed or bamboo if that's what you're using. If the frame surface is flat, it isn't necessary to wrap the paper around it, since you will have more surface area for the glue.
Take your piece of paper and put one edge on the pasted frame. Smooth it down with your finger and make sure it sits in the right place on all four sides of the frame. Since your paste will not dry immediately, you have a chance to slide it around a little to make adjustments. Make sure there is a little bit of paper sticking out on all sides.
Working section by section, make sure there is a thin coating of paste on all sides of the reed, curl your paper around the reed and stick it down.
If necessary, use wooden clothespins to hold the paper in position. Try not to get glue on them or it might be tricky getting them off again!
Once you have one section of frame covered, you will not be able to wrap the paper around the reed on all sides - that's OK. You will just be pasting along the edge of the papered area to add new pieces. Just make sure you have a pasted area of about 1/4 of an inch on each surface that supports the paper.
If you plan to use a candle for light, make sure you leave open space directly above the candle flame to let out heat. If you use glow sticks or battery-powered lights, you will just need to allow access to replace the glow stick or operate the switch.
Once you have the basic paper cover applied, you can decorate the paper with translucent paint, inks or paper applique. Use a wider brush to paste out the paper pieces to stick to the surface and then place them on the appropriate area. Smooth down carefully with your fingers or a clean brush.

A note: Paper does not usually stretch very well around curves. The more of a curve you have to cover, especially a complex curve (where it curves like a saddle in two directions), the smaller the paper pieces will be - you will, in effect, be making a series of small flat planes rather than a curve. Try to plan your design accordingly.

Cloth

Cloth is much more flexible than paper, and has its own characteristics. It can be very translucent, can be sewn into shape more easily, and can be more durable. If you want to make large lanterns that can be disassembled, folded down and stored more easily, this might be a good choice.

Cloth can be cut and adhered in much the same way as paper, although cut edges have a tendency to fray. To prevent that, paint a little clear acrylic medium along the edge.

If it is thin enough to let lots of light through, the chances are that a liquid glue or paste will soak through the fabric and show up along the pasted areas. The glue lines can be concealed with a strip of ribbon or trim, or even glitter if that seems to suit the occasion - the Chinese dragon lantern you see here looks like it has glitter concealing glue lines - very festive!

You can also try double-sided tape (scrapbooking stores carry narrow but strong double-sided tape and also things like glue dots for small areas) but if there is a lot of tension on the join, it may not stick permanently.

Cloth can be dyed or painted, as well as embroidered, sewn and embellished in many ways but you will have to take those things into account with your design. It may be that your design will a distinct look without a light in it, and once the light is lit, you will have a completely different effect. Always think about how something will look with light shining through it. Experiment!

Plastic

Plastic is harder to work with - and to be honest, it's not always as attractive as the other choices here. Some plastics melt easily in proximity to heat, and some burn quickly and give off nasty toxic fumes to boot. Obviously you don't want to use those!

Film gels, which are meant to be used with the hot lights used on film sets, might be suitable. They are transparent and come in a broad range of colours. Try Googling "film supply" or check out Lee Filters. We will be doing field testing with Lantern Lab soon.

If you are using sheets of translucent plastic, be sure it will with stand the heat of your light source. Double-sided craft tape is probably the best way to stick plastic to a frame.

If you need a plastic lantern for a damp location or for an event where there may be more physical hazards to the lanterns, a Pop Bottle Lantern may do the trick. Apply a coat of acrylic varnish to the surface for more protection.