L is for Lanterns and Light

Firstly I need to tell the thousands of readers of this blog that I'm not posting as much because I'm away making! Which is a very good thing.

Secondly I wanted to note that I'm learning a lot about my design process, such as the black zone between thinking of an idea and execute it. As much as I wanted to work through the ideas and get them done swiftly, there has been a need for experimentation and some failure before finishing each idea off. Because of this many projects are underway but few are 100% completed.

Thridly! The title of the post; L is for Lanterns and Light. Originally L was going to be for lentils, which I'm a strong believer in as they can feel far more people that meat can, using the same amount of land. They are necessary for sustainable food production. However there wasn't a crafty appealing use for lentils, so L is for Lanterns and Light. In this project I will produce 3-4 crafty solutions to this idea.

Last year I produced these lanterns for a subject;

The lanterns used recycled/seed containing paper (grows when planted into Sydney native species) and were produced in 5 different shapes. Being 100% made of paper they were sustainable, except for the small LED light that lit them from within. LED's are however a great solution to lighting, using a fraction of the energy used by traditional lighting. For this project I will not reproduce these as the laser cutting treatment we used to the surfaces is to high-tech and not crafty enough. So I will recreate some of the shapes but with different paper and simplified, hand-cut design. I want to produce 3-4 lanterns for the others could be along the lines of;

I find most of these so childish in the best possible way, and if done right they wont look cheap and flimsy but fun, crafty, temporal, and decorative. 

The category of L also has the option for me to include some hand rolled beeswax candles. Which I initially produced for B, so we will see where/if they go. 

I might make L stand for Lights Out, and link this project to earth hour/electricity awareness.