Four reasons I am in love with mason jar oil lamp:
- So easy yet so pretty, takes only 2 minutes to make using vegetable oils and water!
- Even safer than candles: if it’s knocked over, the flame would be immediately extinguished by the oil and water. Still, please follow basic safety steps and don’t leave the lamp unattended!
- Bright and long lasting: 1 tablespoon of oil can last 2 hours!
- Mysterious and magical: thousands of years of history, remember someone named Aladdin rubbed an oil lamp, and a genie appeared? =)
In a more practical sense, these oil lamps are the perfect last minute decorations for dinner parties and festive gatherings!
Now are you ready for the magic carpet ride?
(Update: we made a new set of mason jar oil lanterns this year. Check them out plus lots of helpful tips at the end ! )
Some of the helpful resources are affiliate links. Full disclosure here.
Materials we will need:
- Large floating wicks: to be honest, I tried some oil lamp tutorials with long cotton wicks, and failed completely! The long wicks simply don’t draw up enough oil (lamp oil can work, but vegetable oils have high viscosity) and would burn up and and flame would go out. These floating wicks work beautifully for all veggie oils!
- vegetable oil: 1 tablespoon of oil can last 2 hours. Olive oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and many others all work well.
- mason jars, glass bottles, water, and some decorative elements such as flowers, pine cones, pebbles, etc.
- You can infuse your oil with herbs, spices or essential oils for a lovely fragrance!
Or, make some infused oils easily! Here are the tutorials: how to make herbal oils or rose oil.
First, gather some glass bottles and jars, fill with flowers or other treasures. Cover with water.
Step 2: pour some vegetable oil on top, till the oil form a layer of about 1/4″ thick.
The large floating wicks come with discs and small waxed wicks. Insert a piece of the waxed wicks half way through the center hole on the disc, and put it on top of the oil.
Now light it and enjoy the beautiful glow!
The flowers and fruits will last a whole week in the water.
Pine cones, pebbles, beads are all great additions too!
To extinguish the flame, just put the lids on the jars. The floating wicks can stay in there.
Here are some new one we just made!
Thanks to everyone who asked some great questions! Here is an update on some additional tips:
- After many uses, the waxed wick will burn off, just replace it with a small piece of pre-waxed wick that you can cut into small pieces. The floating disc can last a very long time.
- some flowers will float to the top, you can hold the stem down with some small rocks, glass beads etc
- add food coloring in the water for a special effect!
- light olive oil and sunflower seed oil burns quite clean, I have not notice smoke except for when they are extinguished.
- fake plants will work too!
Related Article: Easiest DIY Hanging Glass Jar Lanterns
Some more nature inspired fun for you: Make botanical ice luminaries-
Make wreaths without using wreath forms! ( a Dollar Store hack)
Dimensional paper flower lanterns!
Have a lovely weekend everyone! xo
Love these. They are beautiful and look easy.
These are beautiful!
I love this so much!! Being a minimalist and not buying things in packaging, I don’t decorate very much. My favorite place is an olive oil store. They have the most amazing infused olive oils, and I have a garden. This is the absolute most perfect centerpiece! I know how I’m decorating my tables from now on.
thank you kathryn! =)
I liked your mason oil lamps a lot & made two of them too. I did not have floating wicks so I made them from cotton & covered with aluminium foil.It worked perfectly!!!Thankyou.
Thank you so much for this idea!! Nothing matches the beauty of candle light. But when it is time to light up my courtyard and home it can get pricey! and unless you use bees wax, it’s not environmentally friendly. I love that I can use what is available in my garden and in my home(oil/mason jars).
Thanks again.
enjoy and happy thanksgiving olga! =)
Love these!! I actually bought a box of floating candles years ago and never did anything with them. What a great idea!! I’ll be doing this for my Thanksgiving table!! Thank You so much!! Color me excited!!
enjoy and happy thanksgiving Tina! =)
Just so lovely! And magic!
Thank’s and have a nice december time…
hi chamoise! thank you and happy december to you! =) (tried to leave you a comment but can’t find the button! ) xo
So creative and beautiful!
thank you lisa! =)
So pretty and so easy..thanks for the idea
Oh that’s beautiful! I really like those.
I love all those ideas. Thank you so much for posting them.
Simply beautiful. All these look amazing!
These are stunning Ananda. So elegant and beautiful. Thank you and wishing you and your family Happy Thanksgiving. xx
Ananda, I swear you come up with the most creative and truly gorgeous diy’s and crafts!! I definitely have a million mason jars around the house that are itching for this upgrade!
These are gorgeous, and look so simple to make. Thanks for sharing how you did it – Pinned!
Beautiful and thank you for sharing
Have you tried silk flowers in these? If so how long do they last and do they bleed the color?
hi shirley, i am sure silk flowers will work great! you may need to weigh them down with small pebbles/rocks. if they are washable, the colors should stay. =)
These are all so pretty! I love them all, but the Rose is my favorite. Does vegetable oil burn cleaner? I know with regular oil lamps they can leave a dark spot on the ceiling above. Thanks for sharing your lovely oil lamps. Pinning and sharing!
hi lina, thank you! =) light olive oil and sunflowers oil are among the cleanest. i have not notice smoke at all!
Can you use any floating candles? I have all sizes. Love how beautiful they all are. Thanks for sharing
hi donita! yes, if you use floating candles instead of floating wicks, there’s no need for the oil. =)
very cool!
thank you. Very beautiful
Wow. Must spent a lot of time writting this artical?because its sooo in detail and so great. sooo cute jar. will definitely try out.
Pandoraflora
https://www.pandoraflora.com
Beautiful! quick question- how long do the wicks last on average??
These are stunning and look so easy to make but where can I get the wicks from thanx
the link is in the materials list in article! =)
They look stunning beautiful, i will try it out for myself!
This is such a lovely idea! A great way to recycle some old jars and my girls will just love these lamps. E=We are recently trying to recycle everything old and useless ta home and here’s a lovely project for us. Thanks for the inspiration!
This is such a lovely idea! A great way to recycle some old jars and my girls will just love these lamps
Hej. Jeg synes simpelthen de er så flotte de krukker med blomster og lys. Jeg forsøgte at bestille de såkaldte “store flydende vægger”, men der stod, at de kunne ikke sendes til min addresse, hvordan fik du fat i dine. Har du fundet en dansk butik hvor de forhandler dem.?
Charlotte. Frederikshavn.
hi charlotte, perhaps try to thinly slice a wine cork and insert a candle wick in it? or search if anyone carries floating wicks in your country? =)
Hey there, none of the links for wicks seem to work, they all just link me back to this article. Do you have a suggestion of where to purchase the ones you use here? Thanks!
hi alder, thanks for letting me know! the link is fixed now! =) if you are still having trouble let me know and i will add one here.
Thank you for such a beautiful idea. I too made these jars,I used cotton wicks & aluminium foil for making floating wicks.These were perfect!!!!Thankyou once again & Blessings!
thank you so much for sharing!! 🙂
Thank you so much, great idea!
OMW these are stunning Ananda and thanks for updating the tips. I’ve been looking for something to add to our Christmas table decor and these are perfect.
What happens to the materials that are used for decoration in the jars? Do they burn or will the wick burn around them? Just curious
hi! they need to be replaced after a week, the water will keep them fresh for about a week, the wick only burns the layer of oil above =)
Hi! Love love love the Mason jars! Question…what can i put in the water to deter and repel these damn mosquitos?? Lemons? Anything else?? Thanks in advance! ?
hi annemarie, i found lemon eucalyptus essential oil to be very effective when we went to florida , more details here https://www.apieceofrainbow.com/make-mosquito-repellent/
although i have not been able to test these oils in the mason jar candles here because we have few mosquitoes in southern california 🙂
Hi! Thank you for sharing the fab project. Would using 100% oil keep real flowers from deteriorating? Thanks!!!!!
hi basielle, i don’t think so, because fresh plant materials can still rot in oil. =)
Has anyone tried this with clear lamp oil? I purchased some for another project and have lots left over.
Amazing work Ananda! This is truly a creative side of yours.
I love this idea! Can;t wait to make some for my home, and great gift ideas too! I’m curious, which are the fruits/vegetables/flowers/nature pieces I could use that would last the longest amount of time without going bad?
hi emily! the plants with thick leathery leaves last longest =) faux plants are also good for this !