The inspiration for this project came from looking at a flower. The Chrysanthemum is one of my favorite flowers because of a book about a mouse with that name when that I used to read when I was younger. The reason that I felt so connected to the book was because the little mouse had such a long name and so did I. When looking at a chrysanthemum you see that it has many peddles. I wanted the fullness of the flower to help come across in my lantern design which was why I decided to layer the paper over one another. The top part of the lantern has the thicker paper crisscrossed over one another because it is suppose to help the lantern come across as a flower with that part be where the peddles meet the stem. To hold up the lantern I braided paper and cut a hole through the bottom of the lantern to attach it and have it go all the way through. The reason I did this was because it needed a more stable structure to hold the lantern up due to the weight of the christmas lights.
Lit Up and Non-Lit Up Views
Putting the Christmas Lights In
I very much enjoyed this project and would say that it have been my favorite throughout the whole semester. It really challenged me which thinking of new ways to manipulate light and construct paper. There was a lot of craftsmanship and many hours put into this lantern. I am very pleased with the end result. One thing that I would change if I could go back would be possibly taking out the christmas lights and putting in just a regular light bulb to help make the glow a bit stronger. The problem with the lantern the way it is now is that it is more of a nightlight then an actual lamp or lantern due to the dim light because of all the layers of paper. I do have to admit that when in the dark by it's self the lantern does look a lot better and I am a bit upset that that couldn't have been seen during my critique due to all of the other lanterns being on as well.
