Tracey Johnson Light Boxes paper lantern

The food is filling, the wine is flowing; holiday celebrations have begun … and here is one great way to make the most of the materials we buy for festivities. These carved wine-crate lights are artistic in origins, but definitely a potential project for DIY lanterns as well.

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Think about it: how of the same disposable materials are going to be appearing in homes around the country (and the world) over the coming weeks? And what kinds of creative projects could we craft from them? Some ideas are fairly simple, too.

DIY lanterns wine boxes

Tracey Johnson presents these wine box lights and lamps as one possibility, but there are many more ways to reuse corks and even recycle broken glass around the house.

About Tracey Johnson

“Tracey Johnson is a full time artist working in a wide range of media, including public art, light-based interactive work, installations, painting, printmaking and digital imaging.  She has recently completed public art projects in Belgium, Mackay, Townsville and Bairnsdale, including a lightweight suspended metal sculpture, glass encapsulating digital imagery, laser-cut corten steel and etched stainless steel sculptural works. She enjoys working in collaboration with other artists and did so with many of these artworks.”

DIY lanterns by Tracey Johnson

Artist Statement

“Fractal patterns are everywhere I look: in river systems, cellular structures, crystalline rock fractures, galaxies, aerial maps of human activity and in the human body – even wild and unpredictable chaos has patterns of its own. Our habits, bodies, and behaviours all echo the off-beat symmetry of the fractal patterns around us, and this speaks to me of belonging, of an embeddedness in the natural world. My work explores this connection, and curently I am working on applying my creative practive to a regenerative agriculture context.”

“I often use found and recycled materials in my work, which revolves around the themes of transformation and regeneration. I draw inspiration from the natural world and the way our fractal selves are deeply connected to that world. The flux of fracturing and re-making in natural processes is mirrored in my own human experience, and foundational in art-making.”