UPDATE: Due to the big, long-lasting snowstorm, we have cancelled the “Light in the Darkness” Community Lantern-making event. We hope to hold this next December, perhaps in conjunction with Tamworth tree lighting.
If you are sad about not making lanterns, Juno kindly put together instructions for how to do this at home:
Sorry that we need to cancel the lantern workshop tomorrow as the storm warning goes through 7PM. We will miss being with you all!
If you would like to make lanterns at home, download and print the template file.* The post the templates come from, with instructions and video, is here (you’ll see that the template file includes a “light tab” and “discard” section that you can ignore unless you are using a small flameless candle/electric tea light).
The photo shows four lanterns hanging on one string of tiny LED lights, which is what we were going to make tomorrow. These ones were made with regular paper, not vellum, which works fine and might be easier if you are using glue. (In this case, scrap paper with music printed on one or both sides.) If your paper is not sufficiently translucent, you can hold the template and paper up to a window or lampshade as a makeshift light box as you trace the template onto the paper. Or, as in the video, you can print the template directly onto the paper you will use.
If you are using only glue, it may work best to glue one edge at a time and let it dry a bit before moving on to the next. Or, for glue and tape, see video…
Another possibility if you don’t have any little lights is to make lanterns and leave a tiny bit by the corner unglued or un-taped, and slip them over the cool-to-the-touch LED fairy lights/Christmas tree lights, colored or white (please make sure you don’t have the kind of lights that get hot after a while). If you make enough lanterns for an entire string of lights, please send a picture! And also, send any lantern pics you’d like to share.
*And, if you don’t have a printer, the library will have templates you can pick up.
Take good care, everyone. Enjoy this beautiful snow and this season of long nights and short days leading up to the winter solstice.
Juno (and Mary, Lucy, Amy, and Peggy at the Cook Library, and the Yeoman’s Fund for the Arts)
Light in the Darkness
Saturday, December 17, 3-5PM, Cook Memorial Library, Tamworth
The days are growing short and darkness sets in earlier and earlier as we approach the winter solstice, the longest night of the year here in the northern hemisphere.
Please join the Cook Memorial Library, the Chocorua Lake Conservancy, and the Yeoman’s Fund for the Arts on Saturday, December 17, from 3-5PM for “Light in the Darkness” at the Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth Village. We will honor the winter solstice and these long dark nights with lantern making, community, cookies, and a lantern-lit evergreen spiral walk. Come create a colorful decorated lantern and then bring it outdoors to light our way as we walk in and out of the spiral, and as the seasons spiral on.
No experience is necessary. Children of all ages are welcome with a caregiver. Feel free to bring cookies to share if you like. This program is free; donations to any of our organizations are welcome. So that we have plenty of materials for everyone, please register in advance at the Cook Library by stopping in or by calling 603-323-8510, or register online at bit.ly/12-17-lanterns-signup.
