Making a homemade flying lantern is a creative way to light up any spring or summer night. Flying lanterns include a small flame resulting from ignited cotton at the center of the object. The lantern gently rises upward as the flames grow and drops back to the ground as the flames dissipate. Stay extra safe with this project and work with an adult and fly the lantern only on a still night.
Instructions
1. Slide on a pair of work gloves to protect your skin.
2. Pour 2 cups alum into a shallow plastic container. Soak two 8 1/2-by-11-inch pieces of copy paper into the alum. Hang each piece of paper with paper clips or clothespins -- two apiece -- in a well-ventilated area until the paper is dry. Repeat this step for the pieces of paper two additional times. The alum provides a fireproof coating to the paper. Buy alum at your local home-supply store.
3. Shave a 24-inch bamboo strip until it's one-sixteenth-inch-thick and one-sixteenth-inch-wide with a utility knife. Bend the strip into a circle. Bond the short ends of the strip with permanent epoxy.
4. Wrap the ends of two 14-inch copper wires around the bamboo circular frame so the wires overlap one another -- forming a letter "X" shape. Bond a 2-inch-wide bamboo circle to the cross point on the letter "X" with permanent epoxy. Bond a one-quarter-by-4-inch bamboo strip around the outside of the 2-inch circle with permanent epoxy.
5. Bond the two pieces of copy paper around the outside edge of the 12-inch bamboo circle with permanent epoxy to form a hollow, 11-inch-tall shade. Take the lantern outside. Stuff two or three cotton balls into the 2-inch-wide circle. Presoak the cotton in ethanol, if you wish, to generate a stronger flame.
6. Ignite the cotton using a flame lighter with an extended plastic handle.
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