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"Shoji" Windows for Stone Lanterns |
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"Shoji" Windows for Stone Lanterns |
A nice finishing touch for a stone lantern, and one which is necessary if you plan to light your lantern is the addition of "shoji" windows to the lantern. I am working on a hypertufa lantern now, but due to what I hope is our last cold snap this winter, I was unable to work outdoors over the weekend. No problem. I have been studying up on shoji and I thought that the mini-shoji for the lantern windows would be a great project to help me improve my woodworking skills. These are skills which will come in very handy when I attempt to build full-sized shoji in the future. I'm not going to write a full article on how to make shoji screens for 2 very good reasons: 1) there are at least
four excellent resources on this subject, 2) I really don't know enough about it. I will however, give you a few pointers on
how you can modify the design of a typical full-sized shoji to be used for a
lantern window.
 The wood that I used was some sort of pine. I'm not sure as to the exact species, as it was basically just a scrap piece that I had laying around. Generally speaking, I would not recommend pine for this purpose. Although the piece that I used was relatively straight-grained, normally you would want a higher quality wood such as redwood. If the screen is to be left in place permanently, it must be able to stand up to the elements. My plan is to insert the windows when I light my lantern and remove them when the lantern is not in use, so the frame does not need to be as weather resistant. I also plan to use regular shoji paper rather than frosted glass or fiberglass. You should also consider how you plan to light your lantern when you design it. I intend to simply use a candle, but if your lantern is very small, you may not have enough space inside to get the candle back away from the flame far enough. The outside dimensions of my shoji were dictated by the dimensions of the window opening the lantern. In this case, 7.5 inches by 5 inches. The rails and stiles are 1/2 inch square and the kumiko are 3/8 inch by 1/4 inch. All of these pieces were made my cutting them from a 3/4 inch thick board to a rough size 1/4" larger than the finished size. I then planed these pieces on all four sides to smooth them and reduce the size. I tried to follow the traditional design as much as possible, so my shoji is assembled by means of through tennons on the ends of the top and bottom rails which pass through the stiles at either side. I cut the tennons too small on the first rail that I made, so I fashioned some tiny wedges to drive in alongside the tennons to create a tight fit. I used a razor saw to cut the tennons. I deviated from traditional shoji design when I got to the point of fitting the kumiko. They should have been blind mortised into the rails and stiles, but I chose to cut notches on the back of the rails and stiles to fit the kumiko into. The reason I did it this way was because I found that though the chisel was exactly 1/4" wide, the mortises I cut were slightly wider. If I tried to fit a 1/4" inch kumiko into one of these mortises, I was afraid it would leave a visible gap. I cut the notches with a razor saw and hobby knife. Probably the most important thing to do is be very careful in measuring and be sure to be consistent in how you use the measured marks. If you cut with the saw flush to the inside of the mark, do so consistently. When I was finished, everything fit so well I was surprised myself! All the corners were square without adjustment and the whole assembly lay flat on the workbench - there was no twisting at all. For more information on making shoji, check out the following books and articles: Fine Woodworking Magazine, Sept/Oct 1989 - Contains an article on building shoji using power tools - table saw, mortising machine, etc. |
