winter solstice lanterns
the winter solstice is upon us, where the days will begin to get longer from there. in celebration of bringing the light and due to its being the darkest day of the year, lanterns are often made in honor of the solstice. two years ago, we made a lovely lantern at the waldorf school where we were in a parent-child class with N before she turned 2. they made quite an impression on her, so i thought we’d make them the same way again for this winter solstice.
when seeking a how-to memory refresher online, i found the most lovely tutorial on the garden mama blog. seriously, her beautiful entry about these lanterns deems this one totally unnecessary, as she wrote the most poetic and wonderfully photographed tutorial on these i could imagine. but i’m going to (b)log our experience here, nonetheless.
we started by beginning the wet-on-wet watercolor process. we soaked three sheets of watercolor paper.
then we opted to dilute my tubes of professional grade watercolors in little jars of water, though you could just use regular watercolors for this. we also chose to only use primary colors, so as to make this an experiment in color-mixing.
N painted and painted, watching the colors run together and create new hues – magic!
when we were finished painting, she wanted a little more vibrance, so i pulled out the watersoluble crayons (one of my favorite media on earth!) and she added some red, yellow, and blue lines into the wet paint. when wet, these crayons behave like concentrated paint.
we hung the masterpieces to dry overnight.
the next day we rubbed them with canola oil on a cloth, so as to make the paper more translucent when lit from within.
after the oil was dry (about a day) we cut fringe along the long side of the paper. we made two like the garden mama blog suggested (ever 2.5 inches, 2.5 inches long) and the third we only did at 1.5 x 1.5 inches.
we used a pillar candle to evenly roll the paintings around, and secured the edge with school glue, and clothespinned them until dry.
after they were dry, we folded the bottom tabs in to create a bottom.
then instead of putting real fire inside, i used little electric tea lights instead.
now we are ready for the darkest day of the year!
all ready to bring the light on december 21st! (which, incidentally, is my birthday
)
by the way, those cute wooden reindeer you see in the photos were a custom set that the talented chris over at mamaroots made for N. we sooo love her creations!






























































