I’ve been making these candle lanterns for probably 5 years now.  I remember looking at the stores for ideas on how to wrap the wire around the glass, and I came up with this method, using just one piece of wire.  I currently have two lanterns hanging on my back deck, and Devona asked me for six, so I’d better get busy!

Here are the instructions:

Supplies: an 18-24″ piece of 18 gauge wire, a recycled glass jar, candle, wire cutters, & round-nosed pliers.  

1.  Choose a glass jar to use.  Make sure it holds your candle well.  Some jars have a concave bump on the bottom of the jar, which doesn’t allow your candle to stand up straight.

2.  Clean any labels off the jar.  I soak the jar in water for about 15 minutes and peel off the label easily.  Then I use a metal brillo pad to scrub off the remaining adhesive.  

3.  Cut your wire with wire cutters.  For the diameter of the mouth of my jar, I use about 18″ of wire.  For your first time making the jar, it doesn’t hurt to cut the wire longer…better to have a few extra inches than to cut short.  

4.  Use your round-nosed pliers to form a loop at one end of the wire:  Grip the wire at the end.  Hold the wire still while you twist the pliers until you get a round shape.

5.  Lay the wire below the grooves on the mouth of your jar with your loop bending away from the jar.  Wrap the wire half of the way around the jar.  

6.  At the halfway point use your pliers to make a 90 degree bend in the wire upward.  This part of the wire is going to be your handle.  

7.  Make your handle as tall or short as you’d like.  For my jar I use 8″ of wire.  I also lay the handle around the round jar to give it a clean undented shape (If you shape it by hand, you might get some slight kinks in it.)

8.  Now insert the wire into the initial loop you made.  

9.  At the point where you’d like your handle to end, make a 90 degree bend in the wire back toward continuing to go around the mouth of the jar.

10.  Wrap the wire around the second side of the mouth of the jar.  Take it all the way to your first 90 degree bend in the wire.  

11.  Finally, make a loop in the wire with your pliers to go around the 90 degree bend:  Make sure the wire around the mouth of the jar tight in order to keep the jar from falling out of the wire.  Leave yourself only enough wire to make your loop, and cut off any excess wire with wire cutters.  Make your loop with your pliers, but leave it slightly opened.

12.  Take all the wire off the jar (you’ll put it back on in a second.)  Insert the 90 degree bend into the loop, and close the loop. 

13.  Now to put the wire back on the jar:  lay one side of the wire around the mouth of the jar.  On the opposite side, slightly move the loop up the handle, and move the 90 degree angled part down below the mouth of the jar.  Now move the looped part to the mouth and slide the angled part up into place.  

14.  If the wire is nice and tight around your jar, success!  If it’s loose, try straightening a loop, cutting off a bit of wire and making a new loop to hold the jar tighter.  

Tips:  For a pretty alternative, consider adding beads to the jar with more wire.  To keep your candle from moving too much, you can put sand or pebbles around the candle in the bottom of the jar.  Finally, just be careful where you place your lantern…think about the heat & fire and all possibilities for broken glass…be safe!