Sky Lanterns - where to buy..

podgee

Has anyone ever come across sky lanterns before for sale anywhere in Ireland ?

There was an advert in last months Village magazine with an 087 number, but the mag is in the bin (and the bin has been emptied!)



For those of you wondering what the heck they are:

Sky lanterns are traditionally lanterns made of oiled rice paper with a bamboo frame that contain a small candle or fuel cell, which is a waxy combustible material. When lit the fuel cell heats the air, creating smoke, and causes the lantern to rise into the air. The Sky Lantern is airborn for approximately 15 minutes, or until the fuel cell is exhausted, then the Sky lantern floats back to the ground. They achieve quite a height and launching them in strong winds is not recommended. Sky lanterns are also known as "Kongming lanterns" because historically their invention is credited to Kongming, also known as Zhūge Liàng , from the Three Kingdoms period of China's history. The people of Northern Thailand also have a variation on a Sky Lantern. These are known as "Khoom Loy". Northern Thai people use Sky Lanterns all year round, for celebrations and other special occasions, one festival in particular is the Loi Kratong festival in which lovers and partners gather on the riverbanks to float flowers and candles, launch Fireworks and release Sky Lanterns together. It is considered good luck to release a Sky Lantern, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of your problems and worries floating away.

fruitandnut

hi, so has anyone come accross these sky lanterns for sale in Ireland, and what sort of prize they are? There are plenty of Thai websites selling them anyway, but just wondering if they are easier to get here! thanks

reilig

podgee wrote: »

Has anyone ever come across sky lanterns before for sale anywhere in Ireland ?

There was an advert in last months Village magazine with an 087 number, but the mag is in the bin (and the bin has been emptied!)



For those of you wondering what the heck they are:

Sky lanterns are traditionally lanterns made of oiled rice paper with a bamboo frame that contain a small candle or fuel cell, which is a waxy combustible material. When lit the fuel cell heats the air, creating smoke, and causes the lantern to rise into the air. The Sky Lantern is airborn for approximately 15 minutes, or until the fuel cell is exhausted, then the Sky lantern floats back to the ground. They achieve quite a height and launching them in strong winds is not recommended. Sky lanterns are also known as "Kongming lanterns" because historically their invention is credited to Kongming, also known as Zhūge Liàng , from the Three Kingdoms period of China's history. The people of Northern Thailand also have a variation on a Sky Lantern. These are known as "Khoom Loy". Northern Thai people use Sky Lanterns all year round, for celebrations and other special occasions, one festival in particular is the Loi Kratong festival in which lovers and partners gather on the riverbanks to float flowers and candles, launch Fireworks and release Sky Lanterns together. It is considered good luck to release a Sky Lantern, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of your problems and worries floating away.

I bought a box of 60 on ebay. Cost €60 inc postage from Thialand. Just do a search for them on www.ebay.ie

Antrim_Man

reilig wrote: »

I bought a box of 60 on ebay. Cost €60 inc postage from Thialand. Just do a search for them on www.ebay.ie

Do they come with the material that you burn in the middle?

reilig

Yes, its a little wax block which is tied on with some thin wire.

LegacyUser

I'm considering the Sky Lanterns for a bit of fun at our wedding. I love the idea of them and I think it would make for a pretty special sight. Apart from actually deciding who to buy them from, I'm also concerned about what will they leave behind on the grounds of the hotel? You mentioned 'wire' holding in the fuel cell... would you mind explaining to me what ends up on the ground following the 15mins of flying time?

Many thanks.

The Gibmiester

You can buy them in Ireland too

http://www.celebrationz.ie/Sky_Lanterns/

opo

Got mine in spar - agnes park in Crumlin. €2 each.

Dubdub

Hey everyone,

I got mine for my friend's wedding at this website http://www.skycandle.ie/
The ones I got didn't have a wax block that had to be tied in, they had a kinda "fuel cell" already attached to them, it was like a waxy piece of card attached to them that you just light and off they go !
They were gorgeous to look at and fast delivery too!

sunshiner

i was wondering where to start looking for them too, good stuff

Gstore.ie (Tony)

Hi All,

I can only assume due to the volume that we sell that we are one of the largest distributors of Sky lanterns in Ireland. We sell only the highest quality lanterns and I have personally checked out nearly 40 different types before settling on the ones that I have. They are the best quality out of what we tested and work 100% of the time we have hundreds of satisfied customers and this can be seen with the feedback on our site.

There are plenty of cheaper quality lanterns out there so my only advice is buy from a trusted source as we had plenty of samples that were not flame resistant and others that would not fill with air, etc....

Here is the link hope you enjoy www.gstore.ie

Best Regards
Tony

king li

you can get them for €14.99 on this web site. have to say the €14.99 is dear, we had a book club in work recently and he was selling the for €2.00 each
http://www.pressieport.ie/categories/Gifts-for-Him/?page=2&sort=featured

Gstore.ie (Tony)

king li wrote: »

you can get them for €14.99 on this web site. have to say the €14.99 is dear, we had a book club in work recently and he was selling the for €2.00 each

Hi All,

I think I can speak from experience having tried about 25 different suppliers, you definitely get what you pay for when you buy laterns. We have tried them all and have seen a lot of cheap rubbish out there the market is flooded with them. We could have went with far cheaper alternatives but the quality were nothing like what what we currently supply, we ended up with what we think are the best of the best and at the cheapest price we could possibly do them at and I know based on the responses our customers are very happy with the quality.

Regards
Tony

Gstore.ie (Tony)

Amazing, if you read the post correctly you will notice that I was talking about when I was trying to source lanterns for us to retail and nothing about the competition which I have zero problems with, if anything I was saying something good about the competition when King li said that they thought 14.99 was dear. There is a big difference between the word supplier and competitor, if I had stated competitor then you would be completely right in your post. I was stating that the market is flooded with cheap lanterns what you get on ebay, etc... for a far cheaper price is not always great quality. I'm sure you have had similar experiences and have seen your fair selection of rubbish lanterns when deciding on the right ones, we have tried over 25 suppliers and over 40 different lanterns so I know what I am talking about.

What you have done by stating <snip> is for sure one of the better suppliers in Ireland" is completely contradict the point you tried to make.

Please try to refrain from posts like this in future without reading them correctly I'm sure the mods and other members will have a problem if you continue to post like this.

I assume this will be the end of it and will allow people to get back to the original reason for the Ops post.

eurotrade wrote: »

We do not mind competition at all. We do mind however that this company (GStore) rubbishes the quality of other suppliers, without having actual knowledge of the competition's products.
<snip> is for sure one of the better suppliers in Ireland, with a high quality product and very competitively priced. Delivery is guaranteed within 48 hours and guess what, they even supply a number of gas filled lighters free of charge.
Look at the website of Eurotrade and decide who is the best and the cheaper supplier in Ireland.

Op to sum this up by all means shop around there are plenty of options out there if you are interested in buying lanterns for weddings, etc... from ebay then I would strongly recommend buying a sample of them first (say 5 lanterns) and try them out to make sure you do not end up with something that will disappoint on the big day. Good luck with them and if there is anything that we can do to advise you then don't hesitate to contact us and we can share our experiences with you.

stapolinhosting

@Gstore, I used to sell sky lanterns not so long ago and I used to test all the types i sold. Just had a read of your safety instructions on your website listing (which are very good and straight forward) but there is one thing I found that no-one ever mentions....

I tested one in my back garden. I live in a housing estate so there are a row of houses my side and a row of houses behind us and even tho it may not seem like there is any breeze in the garden what cant be seen is the draft being created above the fence line. When I set off a lantern it stared to rise as normal but when it got about 3 foot above the fence the draft caught it and pulled it back toward our house and once it got to the house it was whisked up with the draft and ended up sitting on the roof for a few minutes until it heated up again and lifted off into the sky.

I just wanted to mention this because I think it is worth knowing from a sefety point of view.

PS: the video of the wedding display is excellent. Really gives a good picture of how they look when sent up by the ton load.. The last time I set that many off people started calling the Jerry Ryan show asking if we were being invaded. lol They were seen rigt across Dublin. Set off near Sutton and seen in Tallaght!

Gstore.ie (Tony)

stapolinhosting wrote: »

@Gstore, I used to sell sky lanterns not so long ago and I used to test all the types i sold. Just had a read of your safety instructions on your website listing (which are very good and straight forward) but there is one thing I found that no-one ever mentions....

I tested one in my back garden. I live in a housing estate so there are a row of houses my side and a row of houses behind us and even tho it may not seem like there is any breeze in the garden what cant be seen is the draft being created above the fence line. When I set off a lantern it stared to rise as normal but when it got about 3 foot above the fence the draft caught it and pulled it back toward our house and once it got to the house it was whisked up with the draft and ended up sitting on the roof for a few minutes until it heated up again and lifted off into the sky.

I just wanted to mention this because I think it is worth knowing from a sefety point of view.

PS: the video of the wedding display is excellent. Really gives a good picture of how they look when sent up by the ton load.. The last time I set that many off people started calling the Jerry Ryan show asking if we were being invaded. lol They were seen rigt across Dublin. Set off near Sutton and seen in Tallaght!

Very good point, I will check out the wording on the site and amend it thanks for the feedback we really appreciate it.

Have a great weekend

Regards
Tony

stapolinhosting

No problem at all Tony,

Some people see Sky Lanterns as a fire hazard and some see them as a fun clean alternitive to fireworks, but if people have all the proper information regarding the safety of them then they will never be a fire hazard if people read the safety instruction.

LegacyUser

Bought one of these for my child's birthday tomorrow eve. Husband thinks (1) it will frighten horses in field behind the house and (2) it could set neighbouring hay barn on fire??? I'm obviously a child at heart, hadn't considered the neighbours! Could this happen? it's a little windy tonight. I've a fairly big garden.

eurotrade

Hi
Sky Lanterns could frighten horses and cannot set fire to hay barns. The Lantern will not decent to earth as long as the pad is burning.
Of course wind has to be considered when launching Sky Lanterns.
Please read the instructions carefully and you should not have any problems launching the Glo-Sky Lanterns.
best regards, <snip>

stapolinhosting

BettyRose wrote: »

Bought one of these for my child's birthday tomorrow eve. Husband thinks (1) it will frighten horses in field behind the house and (2) it could set neighbouring hay barn on fire??? I'm obviously a child at heart, hadn't considered the neighbours! Could this happen? it's a little windy tonight. I've a fairly big garden.

I cant really see them frightening horses, they may be a little confused as to what they are, but they are quite, and slow motion so dont think the horses would mind too much.

As eurotrade said, as long as the fuel cell is burning, they will stay up in the air.

When it come to wind, and rain, which we have a good bit of at the moment, it would not be a great idea to set any off until the winf has died down. You can set them off in light drizzle, but if its raining they may get damaged and not fly at all.

<snip>

enty

Hi,

Does anyone know of any shops selling sky lanterns in Dublin at the moment? Have been looking around but havent found any yet.

Thanks!

kingofslaves

The Euro store down the road that connects abbey st to henry st had them yesturday. It's opposite house of color and near to that new milk shake place ???? (upper middle liffey street I think ????)

enty

Thanks very very very much kingofslaves!

Went down this morning and got some there,

They still have lots if anyone else is looking to pick some up in a shop in Dublin.

Cheers!

Cathmandooo

I'm locking this thread as there has been far too much advertising going on.

If you wish to discuss sky laterns further without advertising please feel free to start a new thread.