Paper Lantern Workshop at MANWOL Melbourne

On Friday 25 September, The Messy Good Lab joined MANWOL at Abbots Yard for an afternoon and evening of music, culture, food and creativity.

For this one, we brought along a new creative experiment: paper lantern decorating.

Two workshop sessions, lots of colourful tissue paper, a very messy table — and a whole collection of completely different lanterns by the end of the day.

Why Paper Lanterns?

If you don’t know me, I’m Chiu, the founder of The Messy Good Lab. I grew up in Taiwan and have been living in Melbourne for the past few years.

With Moon Festival 中秋節 coming up, I wanted to bring a little piece of the culture I grew up with into this workshop.

There’s a saying in Mandarin:

月圓人團圓 when the moon is full, we come together.

For me, Moon Festival has always been about spending time with friends and family. Back in Taiwan, that usually meant having a barbecue with friends, eating way too much food, playing with little sparklers and just being together.

Since moving to Australia, I haven’t really found my own Moon Festival routine yet.

So when EarWorthy invited The Messy Good Lab to run a creative workshop at MANWOL, I thought:

Why not make our own full moon?

And that’s where our Paper Lantern Decorating Workshop started.

Making Our Own Lanterns

Each person started with a 35cm round paper lantern and a table full of colourful tissue paper.

Instead of everyone following the same design, we brought along different templates and references — abstract shapes, flowers and botanicals, animals, playful objects and a few Asian-inspired motifs.

Participants could trace the templates, mix and match different shapes, play with colour and layering, or completely ignore everything we prepared and make their own design.

Some people planned everything out first.

Some chose their colours and figured it out from there.

And some just started cutting.

There really wasn’t a right way to do it.

That’s something we want to keep bringing into our creative workshops in Melbourne: enough guidance to help you get started, but plenty of room to make something that actually feels like yours.

Same Materials, Completely Different Results

We ran two fully booked sessions throughout the event, and one of the best parts was watching the table slowly fill up with completely different lanterns.

Some were minimal and carefully planned. Others were colourful, layered and covered from top to bottom.

Everyone started with the same round white lantern and the same pile of materials, but somehow no two finished pieces looked alike.

That’s always our favourite part.

We can bring the materials, show you the techniques and give you somewhere to start — but what happens next is completely up to you.

And What Happened to All the Scraps?

A lot of tissue paper gets cut during a paper lantern workshop, so we had a little scrap box on the table throughout the sessions.

Any usable offcuts went into the box instead of the bin.

After the workshop, we mixed those colourful scraps with recycled paper pulp, pressed them into handmade paper and added another layer of tissue paper on top.

Once everything dried, the paper was cut into little handmade name tags — ready to hang from the finished lanterns.

So even some of the mess from the workshop got to become part of the final piece.

Very The Messy Good Lab.

Craft, Music and a Reason to Get Together

One thing we loved about MANWOL was getting to bring a hands-on craft workshop into a music event.

In between the music and everything else happening around Abbots Yard, there was this little corner where people could sit down, pick up some scissors and glue, make something and chat with whoever happened to be sitting next to them.

You don’t have to consider yourself creative.

You don’t have to be good at craft.

And you definitely don’t have to make something perfect.

Sometimes it’s just nice to have something to do with your hands while you hang out with other people.

That’s the kind of space we want The Messy Good Lab to keep creating.

Looking for Creative Workshops in Melbourne?

Our Paper Lantern Decorating Workshop is now part of The Messy Good Lab workshop collection, alongside our pompom workshops and new creative experiments.

The workshop is beginner-friendly and can be adapted for private groups, student activities, team building, community events, festivals and corporate workshops in Melbourne.

Or come along to one of our public sessions and make something with us.

No pressure. Just relax. Just craft.

See you at the next experiment. ✿