Digital @ The Arts Unit
Embedded Files
Star lantern
Star lantern
Are you ready to shine bright and make your mark?
Let's light up the night sky with ouir awesome 3D star lanterns!
Be sure to hang your lantern in your front window, on your front door or in the front yard. You might also choose to hang your lanterns on the school gate or in a local store window.
Together let's create a galaxy across NSW!
Take a walk around your neighbourhood and see how many Supernova art works you can spy!
What you will need:
drinking straws
string or wool
paper - transparent paper such as tissue paper or baking paper works best. Even toilet paper would work!
a ruler, pencil or pen and scissors.
glue stick or sticky tape.
Using the following instructions to create your star lantern:
Step 1 - measure and cut
Step 1 - measure and cut
Cut straws to length. Measurements are approximate, but all straws in each group should be of equal length.
Short - 15 at 6 cm long
Long - 20 at 10 cm long
The short lengths will be used for the centre pentagons.
The long lengths will be used for the star triangle edges.
Arrange 5 short straws to create the centre pentagon and 10 long straws to create the star triangle edges on a flat surface.
Step 2 - thread and tie
Step 2 - thread and tie
Cut 5 pieces of string approximately 45 cm in length.
Thread through 2 long and
1 short straw.
Tie a knot to create a triangle.
Repeat this for the other 4 star triangle points, each time, tying the triangle to the previous triangle at the points where the long edges meet the short edge.
The strings from the first triangle you created will join to the last triangle.
Repeat the process to create a second flat triangle.
You are now ready for the tricky part as we put the stars together to create a 3 dimensional star!
Keep going! You are doing great!
Step 3 - combine
Step 3 - combine
You now need to tie both star sides together at the corners of the opposite pentagons.
Do this by threading a short straw through the excess string at
1 pentagon corner and tying the string to the excess string on the corner on the other side.
Repeat this so that a short straw joins all 5 pentagon corners.
You are making a pentagonal prism by attaching the 2 pentagon shapes together.
Join opposite star points with a short length of string to create a pyramid. You are creating 5 square pyramids coming out from the sides of the central pentagonal prism.
Step 4 - cover
Step 4 - cover
Using your lantern frame as a guide, cut:
20 paper triangles
2 hexagons
Stick them to each of the faces with a glue stick or sticky tape.
This doesn’t have to be neat. You could even try wrapping around strips like paper mâché, overlapping layers of paper until you are happy that all the faces of your star lantern are covered.
If you are thinking of inserting a light, you’ll need to leave one or two faces uncovered.
Extension activities:
Use watercolour paints to decorate sides of your lantern.
Change the scale of the lantern by using longer or shorter straw lengths.
This lantern could be constructed from a variety of polyhedrons, prisms and pyramids. Can you create a unique star structure using different shapes?
Light up your lantern with a torch or battery-operated tea light.
Create several mini stars and attach them to fairy lights.
Congratulations! You have made a star lantern.
Hang in a window for all to see!
Do you want another challenge?
Explore these out of this world Creative Classes:
Third-party content attributions
Third-party content attributions
Girl in window with artwork, © Amanda Owen, 2021, reproduced and communicated with permission. Provided all acknowledgements are retained, these images may be reproduced free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes within Australia only.
Page updated
Report abuse