Base it on ice

Ice bases enhance your luminaries, raise them to viewing level, and keep them above the new snow.  The extra thickness of a base can extend the life of an ice lantern with a thin floor.  If the candle does melt through the floor, lighting a candle in the base can keep the luminary going for additional days.  A broad base can support an ice lantern on a snowbank, providing a flat surface to which it can be firmly attached.

Without a leg to stand on, these
two ice globes are swallowed
up by 9 inches of new snow

Two Arctic Ice Lanterns are placed with their
open ends together just after unmolding.
They weld together solidly.

The base brings this ice globe to
a good viewing level and adds
thickness to its floor.

This display of ice lanterns for the Enchanted
Forest by Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis
uses a couple different types of base.

An Ikea Fniss wastebasket
was the mold for this base.

A ring of ice shot glasses raises
this ice globe above the base.

Smaller bases can be useful, too.

Plastic party bowls from Party City
make small, simple bases for ice lanterns.

Here, an ice flame that was frozen in
a fluted party bowl is joined to a
base made in the same kind of bowl.

This base holds a luminary firmly in place
and keeps it steady on a snowbank.  The
mold for the base was a lid for a plastic
party tray from Party City.

Here, a globe ice lantern (made in
a punch balloon) provides a base
for another globe.

The base, sitting atop an earlier ice
lantern tower, helps raise the
luminary for viewing.

As the luminary melts through its
floor, the candle moves into the base.

The base effectively provides
extra days of life for this ice lantern.

Here are three examples of a constrained-balloon ice lantern being placed on a base made in the same kind of mold, but without the balloon.  (For constrained-balloon ice lanterns click here.)

An Arctic Ice Lantern with its
angular sides as the base for
a constrained-balloon ice
lantern also made in an
Arctic Ice Lantern mold.

Base and constrained balloon luminary
made in a plastic container from the
AxMan surplus store.

This Ikea Fniss wastebasket
constrained-balloon ice
lantern was thin to begin with
and had melted through its
floor and the end of the base.
It could still be lit from the
lower level, though.

All your base are belong to us.

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