Update: Jam Jar Lanterns

Well, we finally had a warmish night to put out the lanterns and enjoy the last barbeque of the summer. After a proper feast of chived cheese stuffed mushrooms and Angus cheeseburgers, we ended up huddled like hobos over the flaming Q as the night wore on. All the more determined as ever to make the most of one last evening out in the garden before winter takes it over. It was a clear, clear night and we could count the stars and broke out the bat detector to see if anyone was about. That's right, we have a bat detector. Dorks! I still haven't worked out how you figure out what species is which but our bats are of the high frequency variety. Does anyone know what that means? I hope they're fruit bats since the plum trees have made a big mess at the back of the property and I haven't got round to cleaning up the latest windfall of purple fruits after the storm we had earlier in the week.

As far as the lanterns are concerned, I'm having second thoughts about the glue dots I used. I think when I make more, I'll use a hot glue gun. As the jars warmed up from the candle flame, all of my hard work slithered to the ground. Another consideration is lighting the tea lights. Sure, I should just get some of those long handled matches or punks I think they're called. I've been thinking about actually filling them with wax and making my own candles instead, but perhaps that defeats the purpose of all the bedazzling.....To see the original post and if you're wondering how or why I made them click here.

Have I mentioned that I found out today that I got that job I wanted so badly? Okay, time to congratulate me - I got the job! I can now add librarian to my long list of occupations. And not just any librarian, but an academic librarian! Okay, Assistant Librarian. I'll be working for a local community college that specializes in the 'land based' studies, that's British for anything forestry, agriculture, aboriculture, landscape architecture, gardening, animal husbandry, equine studies including horse training and shoeing and ferriering, blacksmithing, or last, but not least, veterinary nursing related. I could spend years in that library just exploring considering it specializes in just about everything I've ever been interested in. In fact, I did stay for an hour or more after my interview just going through some of the books and journals. There's this one title on the Arts and Crafts Garden that really got my wheels turning. My husband insisted this was an interview faux pas and I should have left gracefully and immediately after the humiliation of talking about how I'm a team player in front of a panel of five heavies from the Dean's office. I think it may just have won me the gig. I start the first week of November, updates to follow, I'm sure.

Jam Jar Lanterns!!

Okay, so I've been saving jars for months now for no known purpose other than I might use them for storage someday.... or something. The two bulging shopping bags of clanking glass even made the journey from our old flat in Coventry out to the country house and immediately lost rank among the boxes. The other day, while searching for a better place to store some left over cans of paint, I came across the clanking bags in the back of the garden shed and thought, oh yeah, The Jars. Struck by the image of some kind of jam jar lanterns I saw in a magazine once, I was hit by random inspiration. I headed down to the local craft shop, bought some of the cheapest plastic beads I could find, a bit of wire and string and headed home.

When I went back to the states last winter, I saw my sister using these crazy glue dots for scrapbooking and I thought they were amazing. So, I tried using them as a less fuss, no mess way to glue the beads to the jars and it actually seemed to work. I bought some of the dots labeled 'permanent', and aside from pulling on my skin a bit, the dots were really handy. A lot easier than a glue gun, and since they didn't need electricity, I could enjoy a rare sunny day in the garden.


One thing to point out if you're thinking of attempting this yourself, is how to secure the jar to the hanger. Here's what I did, but somebody please tell me if you have a better way to do this!! I measured the rim of the jar with the wire and then added a couple of inches. I made a circle with the wire and twisted the ends of the wire together until they wouldn't pull apart. Now that I had a circle I set about making some loops on either side to attach the hanging wire to. To do this, I wrapped the wire around a screwdriver and twisted until it made a loop. The tricky bit was to get the loop on the opposite side to be in about the same place so that when it was hung it would hang evenly. A few of them were a bit off, and hung a little off-kilter but I decided that just added character and wasn't too bothered about it at all. I used 20 gauge wire to hang them, and found that anything smaller was too flimsy to accept the weight of the jars.




As you can see I had all the essential gear at hand (note the pinot grigio)! I picked up a couple pairs of wire tools when I was at the shop. The obvious bit of kit was the wire cutters. But I also picked up two pairs of pliers, one with round tongs, the other with flat. The round tonged pliers were handy for making twists and spirals, while the flat ones were good for gripping and bending the ends of the wire. This is probably obvious to anyone who's ever worked with wire, but was graciously pointed out to my ignorance in the craft shop. In the end, I decided to use some old sequins and some mother of pearl buttons and hemp twine, as well as the beads, to good effect I think.




Now, I just need a nice warm night to string them out. Fingers crossed for one last summery night! ---The Queen Bee