Mason Jar Light Tutorial

 Michael and I have a little porch at our apartment.  There isn't a whole lot of light out there and because we are getting patio furniture soon we wanted a way to have lots of light so we could eat dinner outside in the evenings.  We decided to make jar lights.  We used Mason jars, wire and Christmas lights.  They turned out really cute!

This is the view as you walk up the stairs to our door

This the view from on the porch sitting on the chairs

To make them you will need Mason jars, the lids- not the tops (not the part that seals the jars when canning but the actual lid part that screws on) and wire.  We used 19 gauge stainless steal wire, and pliers so twisting the wire is easier.

I wanted the wire to be secured onto the actual lid so that we could take the jars down and clean them without having to take the whole assembly down, so Michael came up with a great system.

                                     

First you punch eight holes (four set of two) on the jar lid.  In the picture above it just shows two but they will be three more sets of two around the jar.  You twist the wire on itself in order to make it more secure and strong.   Do this three more times with each pair of holes made in the lid.  If the lids were the face of a clock the holes would be punched at 1:00, 5:00, 7:00, and 11:00.  The picture below shows a better picture of the hole placement.

Then you attach the jars to each other and depending on the space you are using you will need different amount of jars.  We used eight for the space we were working with.  These are the jars before we put lights on them.

This is the final product.  Michael did all the handy work, I just supplied the idea.  I think we make a great creative team!