Introduction: Butterfly Lantern: Illuminate Your Dark Walls With Butterflies!

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College dorm rooms can be quite boring... so I'm constantly looking for different ways to add a little something extra to my room! After hanging up fairy lights, I began to realize the impact that the lighting makes in a room. So as I began brainstorming ideas for my Makers Workshop course, I came up with this lantern. Although the process of the project and design is very simple, it adds a cozy ambience to a room. Even when it is not lit up, it acts a a beautiful decorative piece that can be placed on a table, night stand, counter, etc. It can be customized by using your choice of wood and adding other designs aside from butterflies! This art piece can be made by anyone and can be a great first project for a laser cutter. Whether you want to make this for yourself or for someone else, I guarantee the user will love this item!

Supplies

Tools:

  1. Laser Cutter

Software:

  1. GlowForge

Materials:

  1. Light Walnut Plywood
  2. Wood Glue

Additional:

  1. Battery Run Tealight

Step 1: GlowForge: Design the Lantern Walls

  1. Make sure your laser cutter is turned on and place the plywood onto the tray
  2. Open GlowForge, click create a new design, then choose the option "create a blank design"
  3. Make sure GlowForge is able to read what the material is, if not add it manually
  4. Click the "add artwork" icon (it is the one with the circle and the square image at the top bar)
  5. Select the square then click on the ruler on the right hand side to "reposition and resize". Under scale set the width to 3 inches and the height to 6 inches (make sure aspect ratio is unlocked, you can do so by clicking on the paperclip icon in between the width and height)
  6. Once you have the desired rectangle, copy and paste the rectangle until you have 5 identical ones
  7. Click on the "add artwork" icon again and in the search bar look up "butterfly"
  8. Choose your desired butterfly shape and place them on the rectangles (I aligned my butterflies in a "flowly" motion by having them "fly" upwards then back down but you can place them however you'd like).
  9. We are now ready to print. Double check to make sure that the settings are at "cut" (this is on the left hand side). You also want to make sure that the butterfly cut comes before the rectangle cut
  10. Once everything is set, click the "print" button on the top righthand corner

Step 2: Glowforge: Lasercut the Floor and "lid"

  1. Use the same piece of plywood or get a new one that has space left
  2. Click the "add artwork" icon and select the pentagon shape
  3. Adjust the width to be ~5.34 inches and the height to be ~5.08 inches (again make sure that the aspect ratio is unlocked)
  4. Copy and paste the shape, so that you have two identical ones
  5. One will be the floor piece and the other will be the lid. For the lid I cut off the tip of the pentagon so that it would be easier to grasp the lid but this is optional (in order to do this select the line from "add artwork" and draw it across the tip of the pentagon)
  6. Again, double check to make sure the settings are at "cut" on the left hand side and then print!

Step 3: Remove the Pieces and the Film

  1. Pop out the pieces from the rest of the plywood (all five of the rectangles and the pentagons)
  2. Carefully remove the butterfly cutouts from the walls/rectangles
  3. Remove the film from all the pieces

Step 4: Put the Lantern Together

  1. Apply woodglue onto the edges of the floor piece (a little goes a long way)
  2. Carefully place the walls on the floor piece, holding each piece for a few minutes so it sets (make sure that if you have a flowing design, the pieces are in the right order)
  3. Allow the glue to dry for at least 24 hours

Step 5: Add in Tealight

  1. Once the glue is completely dry, add in the fake tealight
  2. Cover with the lid to amplify the butterfly shapes onto the walls
  3. Turn off your lights and admire your beautiful art piece!


Conclusion:

Yay! You've completed your butterfly lantern! The project is a great way to get introduced into the basics of laser cutting. Not only is it a decorative piece but it can act as a night light or add ambience to a boring room.


Tips:

  1. If the material doesn't seem to be cutting all the way through, make sure that the camera lens is properly cleaned
  2. When selecting images of butterflies, make sure they are simple. If they are too detailed, it may be difficult to take the pieces out and the intricate designs may not shine well on the wall


How to Customize:

  1. You are not limited to butterflies, try hearts, flowers, dragonflies, whales, whatever you want!
  2. Instead of making the lantern into a pentagon, you can do a hexagon or a rectangle to make the process simpler


Reflection:

I believe my main takeaway from this project is that anyone can make anything. I don't consider myself to be an artsy person nor am I good with technology. It was difficult to brainstorm ideas but I just began to draw out whatever popped into my head. Products using machines like a laser-cutter don't always have to be super complicated to make a piece of art that is beautiful! I showed this lantern to my friends and many initially thought that I had purchased it somewhere. I hope you had fun with this project whether you're using the laser cutter for the first time or have used it multiple times. It's easily customizable and makes for a great gift!