Tiffany Style Lanterns

student work, all three sides of the lantern

A shout out to my friend Kristy who started this project with resin-based “stained-glass”. Her previous work was really helpful in developing this unit on Tiffany style lanterns.

Lanterns are a big deal in Asia, they can identify what kind of restaurant you’re walking into or even give a city its identity (like in Hoi An). They also come in varying levels of complexity, ranging from basic paper globes, to massive, exotic animal shapes to celebrate Chinese New Year.

With this in mind, I used lanterns as a catalyst to teach my students about Abode Illustrator, laser cutters, and added cultural elements collaborating with their Chinese teachers, as well as sustainability (rechargeable led bulbs) and ergonomics (safety factors; they won’t shatter like glass and the bulb don’t get hot).

Students first researched famous stained-glass windows and Tiffany lamps. They chose birds, fish, or plants from China as source imagery to give the lanterns an identity. The process was pretty straight forward.

• Choose 3 images from online (you’ll notice citations in their journal pages).
• Print the images and trace them with a black marker in the style of stained-glass.
• Scan those drawings and put them into Illustrator.
• Copy over the drawing using paths in Illustrator with the stroke set to 8. (I provided the template for the lamp panels)
• Print the renderings from Illustrator (A3) and do some color studies using markers.
• Print the 3 panels on acrylic sheets using a laser printer. (our technician did this part)
• Stick the panels to vinyl contact paper and pour resin into the empty spaces.
• Let resin sit for 48 hours. (make sure they are perfectly flat)
• Peel off the contact paper and clean off any left over adhesive with rubbing alcohol.
• Color both sides of the clear resin stained-glass with permanent markers (use the color studies to guide you)
• Assemble lantern using super glue or tensile glue (if you use acrylic like me). We printed the triangular tops for our students, but you could have them do it.
• Place rechargeable LED lights inside and evaluate your work.

Below are examples of the design journal pages showing their inquiry and analysis, developing ideas, and evaluations along with some examples.

inquiry page (A3) and evaluation page (A4) to start and end the project

color experimentation pages with printed Illustrator designs and photo citation

panels with resin poured into the empty spaces