For the balloon-shade we will need the simplest things:
• paper lantern,
• 4 napkins with sunflowers,
• broken basket without handle,
• stickers in the form of flowers,
• scissors,
• brushes,
• paints,
• PVA glue,
• 5–6 meters of cord,
• balloon passengers and fantasy.
When I came across napkins with sunflowers in the store, I thought that they were very reminiscent of flames that burst out of a burner and inflate a balloon. The flashlight has been lying around for a long time, all that remains is to bring all the elements together. Cut out flower pieces of the desired size.
Now you need to remove three white paper layers from the napkin so that only the colored one remains.
We carefully place it on the bottom of the lamp and coat it with PVA glue. I dilute the glue with water in a 1:1 ratio to make it easier to apply.You can use undiluted, but then there is a high risk of tearing the napkin when spreading it over the surface. For this process you need to take a brush with soft bristles.
From pieces of napkin we gradually form our flame below.
We do this until we fill the circle completely. We try to distribute the napkins so that there are no unsightly gaps.
On top I decided to duplicate the same pattern for symmetry. Let it be the sun.
To make the sunflower fire look brighter and more complete, I painted the flames with red and yellow gouache.
Now we tie a cord to the basket, distributing its segments at equal distances inside the circle. Try to keep all the knots inside the basket. Each suspension takes about a meter of cord. You can additionally duplicate it with a cord around the lamp. It is very important to center the basket; this is one of the most difficult aspects of the job. Check it, it should hang evenly under the balloon. To make this process easier, you can look through the hole below. Through it you can clearly see where the center of the basket is. A real basket made of twigs is quite expensive; you can weave it from newspapers. Master classes on newspaper weaving can easily be found online.
In the finale, I decided to decorate the center of the paper lampshade with stripes of yellow-green gouache and flower-shaped stickers. Try to find stickers on thin paper so that they do not peel off from the tissue paper that covers the lampshade. Luminous phosphor-coated stickers also look very nice on such lamps. It turned out to be a real waltz of flowers.
We place passengers in the basket. Try to distribute them so that there are no distortions. Carefully attach the lampshade to the lamp and again check whether the basket hangs level.After this, we send our balloon on a long flight. Bon Voyage!
