You did a great job on your lantern. All the pieces blend together really well. Have you made other things? The picture turned out fine. Billie

Your lantern looks really good. I like the smoothness and the symetry.

Your lantern is absolutely beautiful! It occurred to me that since the cost of purchasing a lantern for the garden is outrageous, I've considered creating my own. I'm new to this site and may have overlooked how you sculpted yours. How is it that you created the forms? Again - very nice work!

Thanks jackley. Sorry it took me awhile to reply - been busy with sap season.

I had to think about this for a bit. It was made some time ago. It took me quite awhile to gather together all the various parts and plan it out.
I didn't really do much sculpting. Mostly just giving it the wire brush treatment.
The base was made inside a plastic plant pot. The cut outs were formed with pieces of 1" foam covered in plastic wrap and stuck to the pot. For the disc on top of the base I filled a 5gallon plastic bucket with sand leaving about 1 1/2" at the top for the mold.
The middle part was a small joint compound bucket. Inside of this was placed a 2 liter soda bottle filled with sand - again using pieces of foam for the cutouts. Because the foam wasn quite thick enough for the space I also made a plastic covered cardboard sleeve for the soda bottle for a better fit and to help with demolding. Couldn't find anything I liked for the top mould so I did a sand casting using a large bowl to make the initial impression then modifing the shape. The small top piece was formed by hand and wrapped in plastic wrap - amazingly it held it's shape.

At the time I was planning this there were several pictures of other lanterns that were my inspiration. Some even had pictures of the molds they used. I've made a couple more since with different molds. On the smallest one I carved the windows after it was made. It was easier than trying to pack tufa around foam inserts but works best if your ingredients have been sifted so you don't run into any large chunks when carving.
I finally found a nicely tapered bowl at the "off price "store that makes a nice top. still on the lookout at second hand stores for a square glass ceiling light fixture that others have used for a top.

good luck with your 'tufa projects. It certainly is a very satisfying feeling when you stack together the finished pieces of a lantern you made yourself.

packrat2 aka Jan