Date Made: April 2012
Surprise! Here's a non-wooden project. The original plans/idea for this project can be found here. As you may have noticed, I made a few changes to the original design.
- Used a slightly different solar light. As you can see, my solar light protrudes a bit higher from the top of the lantern. At first I thought this would be distracting, but I actually like the extra layer it adds and it is unnoticeable at night. The original article does not specify which type of light they used so I just bought the cheapest (~$2) solar light at Wal-Mart.
- Drilled holes around the center for more light exposure. I’m not sure if the light used in the original design was some super bright, but after constructing my lantern, I soon realized the light produced by the solar light was barely noticeable and the lantern just looked like a hanging pot, even at night model. Drilling these holes gives the lantern a more decorative look during the day and exposes more light at night.
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| Still looks good in the day |
- Tied end of the 3 ropes to an S-hook. This makes it really easy to take down and move the lantern whenever I need to.
- Did not glue the solar light onto the lantern. After day 1, I realized my porch does not get enough light exposure to charge the solar light throughout the day. Since the solar light is not glued to the lantern, when the battery dies, I am able to simply take the light out in the morning and put it in the sun without having to take down the entire lantern.
- Spray-painted the exterior. The original document’s final product appears to be bronze, but the document instructions makes no mention of spray-painting the lantern. I didn’t like the shiny aluminum look of the Socker pot so I decided to spray-paint mine a textured bronze.
