Hi All,

I love decorating my house with an unconventional or "one of the kind" idea and reuse / recycle items found at home. In this instructable , I will be reusing old glass jar, wooden skewers, Whiskey bottle packages, popsicle sticks and cardboard ( from Shirt packaging)

I will be use different techniques in this article and it should be safe for beginners to replicate.

Please share your comments and feedback

Step 1: What Do We Need ?

Materials

Cardboard Cylinder ( 3.75" diameter and 12" height)
Pebbles or small construction stone
Popsicle sticks
Skewers
0.5" Plywood
5mm MDF sheet
0.5W LED bulb
B22 Bulb Socket
3ft Copper wire
2 pin AC plug
Black Thread
White cement

Tools

Hot Gule gun
Black, white and brown acrylic paint
Wood polish
Drilling machine
Jigsaw
Hacksaw
G Clamps
2mm and 35 mm drill bits
PVA glue or Fevicol

Step 2: The Tower

Before starting sort the pebbles or construction stones by
- Size
- Shape
- Thickness
This is important as this reduces time spent on finding the right stone for the space
To make window and Door frames, I used longer stones, I arranged them on my table first and then ot glued them on the cardboard cylinder
Then fill the space between the window and the door
Next fill the top and bottom borders, This makes it easier when finishing
Fill in the gaps.
Depending on the quality of your hot glue gun and glue sticks, the stones may fall randomly. Just be patient and glue them back
I coated a thin layer of white cement to fill in between spaces
Let it dry for 3 to 4 hours
The white cement also covers stone, which is undesirable, use dry brush technique to regain the natural stone colors
I used diluted black acrylic paint with very less paint in the brush to cover the stones

Side Note : I first tried using white cement and placing stones, but was careless and whole thing just fell off

Step 3: The Top

I am making this part using cardboard, that I recovered from Shirt packaging material
Since my tower is now 4" diameter after stone work,
I cut a 4.5" diameter, cardboard circle
Then cut a piece at 110 degree and fold it carefully to make a cone
Use paper tape to join it
I tried coating with thin layer of white cement, but it fell off, So covered it with more paper tape
This size is based on the glass bottle that I will describe in the next step

Step 4: Lantern Glass

One could have used small jar too, I could not find one at my home so decided to cut a larger jar to size that i wanted

This was an olive jar bottle, that I cut using my bottle cutter.
I scored the jar at appropriate length
Then using Candle and ice method, cut the bottle into 2
Using 220 GRIT sandpaper, smooth out any sharp edges
I am using the bottom piece and the saving the top of the jar for another project in future
Cut a piece of baking paper and stick it inside the glass jar, this will help in defusing light further

Step 5: Lantern: Base

On a 5mm MDF plank, cut a 4.5" circle using jigsaw
Drill 2mm holes (8) at the border for railing or fences
Drill 2mm Drills (4) to secure the glass from outside
Drill a hole of 30mm at the center ( image in next steps) for the bulb to fit in
Fit skewers of suitable length for glass jar and fences

Step 6: Lantern Base Fitting

To fit the lantern on the base tower, we need a "inside cap" arrangement
First we drill a 35mm hole 15mm plywood
Cut its corners to fit inside the tower as shown
Now using PVA glue o fevicol, stick the base board from previous step to this inner cap piece
Also before glueing, I have inserted the first piece on a bulb holder, on which we can fit the remaining part of the bulb holder
Clamp the arrangement for drying

Step 7: Wiring

Insert a wire from the back of the tower
connect bulb holder and a 2 pin AC plug
Check if the connections are not loose
Insulate any wires or connectors, where needed

Step 8: Finishing

Windows and Door

Based on the size and shape of the window and door, cut cardboard piece as shown
Using popsicle sticks cover them
Cut the excess
Stain the popsicle sticks with brown paint
Then coat wood polish on them
Hot Glue the wind and door on the tower as shown

Lantern Fences and Base

Paint the base, skewers and top with brown acrylic paint
Coat them with wood polish
Using black thread make fence ropes
The thread may expand in future and fall off from their position
So secure them in place by using pva glue or fevicol

Tower

By now many pebbles or stone must have dropped due to bad hot glue
Hot glue them in place again

Step 9: Light It Up

Since this lamp uses 0.5 W LED bulb, it does not get hot even after 8 hrs.
Due to stone it get a bit heavier and stable. cannot be
To change bulb, just lift the Glass jar and change the bulb
If you are replacing the bulb, we may have to open the top for the heat to dissipate, just like actual lighthouse

Find a suitable spot to place your new lamp and Light it up

Please share your comments and suggestions