Description
The idea for this Lantin has been bouncing around my brain for at least a year, and to be honest it’s a relief to finally exorcise it!
Tinter Wonderland Four is inspired by my trip to The Royal Opera House about 25 years ago, to watch The Royal Ballet perform Tchaikovsky’s beautiful Christmas ballet, The Nutcracker. I have a DVD of a slightly later performance by the same troupe at the same theatre, and I watch this every Christmas and absolutely love it. I have the least graceful, most inelegant body you could imagine, so watching the grace and apparent ease with which any ballet is performed has me totally entranced.
In this Lantin, whose overall measurements are roughly 15 x 15 x 6cm, there’s a huge amount of detail with some very tiny cuts of card (for example, Clara’s eyes are around 2.5mm in diameter).
In the background there’s a patterned ‘wallpaper’ to set the scene of Clara’s home. There’s a very large, decorated Christmas tree, lit by ‘candles’ (warm white fairy lights bent upwards to give a flame effect). Around the bottom of the tree are Christmas presents, and Clara’s doll’s house (if you’ve seen the ballet you’ll know that when Drosselmeyer gives Clara the Nutcracker, AKA his enchanted nephew Hans-Peter, she puts it to bed in her doll’s house).
In the foreground, on a wood-textured stage, are Clara and Hans-Peter (still in his Nutcracker guise), with Clara en-pointe and smiling at the audience. And there’s a pair of red curtains at the very front, affixed to a pearlised gold card surround with a red decal above.
There are at least ten different cards and papers in use in this Lantin, so it’s one of the most colourful and detailed Lantins I’ve ever made. Any fan of the ballet, young or old, will be sure to love this unique handmade Christmas decoration for years to come.
Like all of my Lantins, “Tinter Wonderland Four – The Nutcracker” is presented in a branded cotton bag with a 1m USB extension cord which will give you some extra distance between shelf and socket. Additional or longer extension cords, should you need them, can be bought for a couple of quid at eBay.
Note: you will need a USB plug (such as is used for charging a mobile phone) or a USB battery pack – neither of which are supplied with the Lantin. While my Lantins will undoubtedly be attractive to children, please exercise caution and keep the Lantin and its cables out of reach of tiny hands.
