Mohawk Valley Barn

Lantern

2010

Over the winter, I attend a workshop to make 18th century Tin items, such as lanterns, sconces, coffee pots, and other household tools that were in use, in an era long before plastic came along. This year one of the attendees brought some cutout pieces of a lantern shape he had created. He put his lantern together in class and made a great punched tin rooftop for it. My set went home with me, where I have no tin shaping tools. So what you see is my wooden version of a barn lantern. With a wooden top, I found it necessary to affix a heat shield from some soft copper pieces. And, on top, I needed an appropriate outer heat shield, which presented itself, in the way of a rusty tin scrape, while I was turning over some dirt in my garden this past weekend! It really went together easily with glue and nails. The shapes even had inset cutouts to accept glass, on the inside.