You may not know this about me but I discovered the art of leathercrafting during a bicycle trip around the world. This journey took me through all matter of places and cultures. I was very fortunate to discover and admire a whole range of diverse architectures, among which Mosques often stood out with their beautiful domes and exquisite decorative geometrical motifs.
Thus to honor those places that now reside within me as dear memories and still feed my imagination, I decided to make a mosque inspired lantern which incorporates faux stained-glass windows! I hope that you will enjoy the result as much as I enjoyed the process of designing and crafting it.
This lantern is meant to be used either with natural sunlight shining through the gate, in combination with 3 LED tea candles or 1 LED candle with maximum dimensions of 9x7cm.
Print the template on US letter or A4 paper depending on the version you downloaded.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the reference found at the bottom of each page.
As for the stained-glass windows template, print it on the transparency paper, making sure to use the recommended print settings.
Be mindful that only one side of those sheets is intended to be printed on.
Securing the pieces of the pattern on the leather
Roughly cut around the different pieces of the template with an X-acto knife or a pair of scissors.
Secure all the pieces of the template to your leather using masking tape.
Punching the stitching holes
Use your stitching prongs or hole punch to punch out all the stitching holes.
Cutting-out the pieces of the project
Using an X-Acto knife, cut-out all the pieces of the project.
I used a lacing chisel to cut-out the small details of the window panes but I’m not gonna lie, I really wished I had a laser cutter to use for this instead.
Cut-out the 3 stained-glass panels and the 11 blue windows from the transparency film as well.
Bevelling the inner edges
In preparation for the panels’ assembly, we are going to bevel the edges of the 4 side panels as well as the 4 foundation panels.
For the side panels, bevel the left, right and top inner edges.
For the foundation panels, bevel the left and right inner edges.
Painting the leather
This project has been painted using Angelus leather paints.
I used a mix of white and yellow (barely a drop) to paint the exterior of the side panels and painted the interior gold. The window panes are painted brown, the door and the dome turquoise and the dome wall blue.
Gluing the stained-glass windows to the window panes
Through experimentation, I found out that the printable side of the transparency paper adheres quite well to contact cement.
This makes sticking the stained-glass windows to the window pains really easy.
First apply contact cement to the back of each window pains and around the back of the windows of the dome wall. Wait for it to be dry to the touch.
Position the stained-glass windows on top of the back of the window panes and press them firmly in order to bound the transparency film to the contact cement.
Then use an awl to pierce the stitching holes through the transparency film.
For the dome dome wall, we need to stitch it in shape before setting-up the windows. Since the strip will curve when it is stitched, the windows would crack if they were set-up when the strip is flat.
First apply the contact cement around each window on the flat strip.
Wait for it to be dry to the touch and stitch the two ends together using a cross stitch.
Finally press each window into place to bound the transparency film to the contact cement.
Assembling the lantern
Now to stitch it all together!
We’ll start at the dome, stitching each of the 8 dome panels together using a cross-stitch.
Then screw-on the top decorative spike. Depending on the thickness of the leather that you used, the screws that comes with the spike might be too short. I had to use a longer screw with a small washer to set-it up properly.
Stitch the periphery of the base of the dome to the wall using a cross-stitch.
Stitch the bottom of the wall to the roof. The technique is akin to a saddle stitch. But instead of having two pieces flush with each other, they are positioned at a 90 degrees angle.
Stitch the three window panes underneath their respective side panel using a saddle stitch.
Stitch the door frame on top of the appropriate panel.
Stitch the top of the four side panels to the periphery of the roof using a cross-stitch.
Join the 4 side panels by stitching down each corner of the lantern.
Once you reach the bottom of a corner, stitch two foundation panels together with the same thread.
Complete the lantern by stitching the top of the 4 foundation panels to the bottom of each side panel.
Final result
I hope you enjoyed following along this tutorial. Please consider posting a photo of your creation in the comments below. It would mean a lot to me to see my little projects out into the world as you make it your own.
Any feedback/question about this tutorial or project idea that you’d like to see posted here is and always will be more than welcome.
Happy crafting!
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project:
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
Tutorial
Mosque Lantern
8 hours
Moderate
Common for leathercraft
You may not know this about me but I discovered the art of leathercrafting during a bicycle trip around the world. This journey took me through all matter of places and cultures. I was very fortunate to discover and admire a whole range of diverse architectures, among which Mosques often stood out with their beautiful domes and exquisite decorative geometrical motifs.
Thus to honor those places that now reside within me as dear memories and still feed my imagination, I decided to make a mosque inspired lantern which incorporates faux stained-glass windows! I hope that you will enjoy the result as much as I enjoyed the process of designing and crafting it.
This lantern is meant to be used either with natural sunlight shining through the gate, in combination with 3 LED tea candles or 1 LED candle with maximum dimensions of 9x7cm.
Requirements
Skills
Tools
Bill of Materials
Pattern
Mosque Lantern Pattern
ONLY USE LED CANDLES
This lantern is not safe to use with regular burning wax candles.
Walk-through
Printing the pattern
You can get the pattern here if you haven’t already.
Print the template on US letter or A4 paper depending on the version you downloaded.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the reference found at the bottom of each page.
As for the stained-glass windows template, print it on the transparency paper, making sure to use the recommended print settings.
Be mindful that only one side of those sheets is intended to be printed on.
Securing the pieces of the pattern on the leather
Roughly cut around the different pieces of the template with an X-acto knife or a pair of scissors.
Secure all the pieces of the template to your leather using masking tape.
Punching the stitching holes
Use your stitching prongs or hole punch to punch out all the stitching holes.
Cutting-out the pieces of the project
Using an X-Acto knife, cut-out all the pieces of the project.
I used a lacing chisel to cut-out the small details of the window panes but I’m not gonna lie, I really wished I had a laser cutter to use for this instead.
Cut-out the 3 stained-glass panels and the 11 blue windows from the transparency film as well.
Bevelling the inner edges
In preparation for the panels’ assembly, we are going to bevel the edges of the 4 side panels as well as the 4 foundation panels.
For the side panels, bevel the left, right and top inner edges.
For the foundation panels, bevel the left and right inner edges.
Painting the leather
This project has been painted using Angelus leather paints.
I used a mix of white and yellow (barely a drop) to paint the exterior of the side panels and painted the interior gold. The window panes are painted brown, the door and the dome turquoise and the dome wall blue.
Gluing the stained-glass windows to the window panes
Through experimentation, I found out that the printable side of the transparency paper adheres quite well to contact cement.
This makes sticking the stained-glass windows to the window pains really easy.
First apply contact cement to the back of each window pains and around the back of the windows of the dome wall. Wait for it to be dry to the touch.
Position the stained-glass windows on top of the back of the window panes and press them firmly in order to bound the transparency film to the contact cement.
Then use an awl to pierce the stitching holes through the transparency film.
For the dome dome wall, we need to stitch it in shape before setting-up the windows. Since the strip will curve when it is stitched, the windows would crack if they were set-up when the strip is flat.
First apply the contact cement around each window on the flat strip.
Wait for it to be dry to the touch and stitch the two ends together using a cross stitch.
Finally press each window into place to bound the transparency film to the contact cement.
Assembling the lantern
Now to stitch it all together!
We’ll start at the dome, stitching each of the 8 dome panels together using a cross-stitch.
Then screw-on the top decorative spike. Depending on the thickness of the leather that you used, the screws that comes with the spike might be too short. I had to use a longer screw with a small washer to set-it up properly.
Stitch the periphery of the base of the dome to the wall using a cross-stitch.
Stitch the bottom of the wall to the roof. The technique is akin to a saddle stitch. But instead of having two pieces flush with each other, they are positioned at a 90 degrees angle.
Stitch the three window panes underneath their respective side panel using a saddle stitch.
Stitch the door frame on top of the appropriate panel.
Stitch the top of the four side panels to the periphery of the roof using a cross-stitch.
Join the 4 side panels by stitching down each corner of the lantern.
Once you reach the bottom of a corner, stitch two foundation panels together with the same thread.
Complete the lantern by stitching the top of the 4 foundation panels to the bottom of each side panel.
Final result
I hope you enjoyed following along this tutorial. Please consider posting a photo of your creation in the comments below. It would mean a lot to me to see my little projects out into the world as you make it your own.
Any feedback/question about this tutorial or project idea that you’d like to see posted here is and always will be more than welcome.
Happy crafting!
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project: