My husband and I were asked to help with an Easter Week activity for the children at our local church. We wanted to have “ancient” oil lamps for the children to hold, but they needed to be battery operated (no actual oil or fire). I couldn’t find anything like what I was imagining, so I decided to make them myself using paper mache. First, I designed and cut a cardboard armature on the Glowforge.
The tealights I used have four little feet. I cut tiny holes in the cardboard for the feet to keep the tealights from sliding around.
Here’s the finished armature.
I used paper mache clay to cover the armature, and I added a unique design to each lamp.
I painted the lamps with acrylic paint and aged them with some dry brushing.
Here’s how they look with the lights on.
Since we couldn’t have the children pour actual oil in their lamps, we use the Glowforge to make little acrylic oil drops for them to put in the lamps (and one for each of them to take home). We had about 250 children rotate through our station. It was so much fun, and I’m grateful to have a Glowforge to facilitate the process.
