Make a blossom lantern
Thinking of coming to the blossom parade and would like to make your own prop to bring? Little Lost Robot have kindly shared the instructions for building a blossom lantern. Follow this step-by-step guide to create your own.
What you will need
You'll need the following items:
- 10 willow withies
- A pack of wet strength tissue paper
- A rough template for petal sizes (download the PDF below)
- PVA Glue
- Scissors
- Masking or other tape
- (Optional) forage and add your own blossom
- Glue brush (old paintbrush or toothbrush to put glue on withies)
Step one
Soak your willow withies - a great way to do this is to just pop them in the bath overnight or wrap them in a wet cloth.
Step two
Use the shape guide to make five rough petal shapes with the withies. Carefully bend the wider ends of the withies with your hand into a rough circle using diagram A (see PDF below) as a size guide, tuck the withy into itself when it feels ‘petal shaped’. Repeat five times.
Step three
Create a flower shape
Lay the petals out in a flower shape and tape the petals together - roughly where the arrows are in this image
Step four
Adding a circle
Make a smaller circle, similar to diagram B (see PDF below) and tape onto the outside of the withy frame - making the classic blossom shape. Wrap and trim any loose stick edges and stick together with tape.
Step five
Cut tissue paper roughly to size, you can do this by drawing around the largest of your petals – but make sure you make it bigger so it can wrap around the wood.
Step six
Carefully brush glue onto the outside of your withy frame – and stick tissue paper on the outside of each petal.
Step seven
Add tissue paper and decorate
Turn the flower over, brush glue carefully over the inside of the flower and carefully dot glue on the inside of the paper. Stick in any blossoms you have collected (optional) and then stick tissue on the inside and put a coloured circle in the middle. Use any extra cut off bits of tissue to glue and layer over weak spots in the flower, or cover any gaps in the centre. Trim any rough edges. Leave to dry.
Step eight
Add the stalks – twist two withies together and tape to the back of the flower head. You can put stalks through the front of the flower to act as the centre of the blossom as in image at the start.
Our partners
A not for profit collective of artists making work, and teaching creative skills based at studios in the area of Bath and North East Somerset.
Blossom lantern size guide
This template has two size guides for creating petals and a circle for the blossom lantern
Find out about the blossom parade
Now you've created a blossom lantern, get ready to bring it to the parade.
Make some petal art
Unleash your creativity by designing your own unique petal art. You can gather fallen petals out on your adventures and use them to create your own blossom.
