FAIRY LANTERNS

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This inexpensive craft is easy, fun... and it sells!

————by WANDA CORNELIUS————

Figuratively speaking. Barney Munnerlyn of Arkansas can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Barney, you see, fashions "pewter" objects out of tin cans . . . lovely creations he calls "fairy lanterns".

For the past five years, these decorative and functional art-objects-from-waste have (along with other crafts) become a full-time profession for Barney. And he's quick to tell you that he "loves every minute" of the work.

Prior to 1970, however, Munnerlyn sold insurance and didn't enjoy that job in the least. But, one of the shops that he visited in the "line of duty" was a crafts store, and the beads that were sold there caught Barney's interest. It wasn't long before Munnerlyn quit the insurance business to set up his own crafts shop, where he designed and sold original jewelry and copper butterflies mounted on driftwood plaques.

THEN ONE DAY

Barney came upon the idea for his lanterns accidentally. One day, as he welded two butterfly wings together, he used his torch to carve his name in the side of a tin can. That simple act set him to thinking: If he could carve out his name, then he could cut designs in the containers as well! Munnerlyn produced tin butterflies first, but he decided that he liked the copper ones better. Then, when Barney finally decided to make something out of whole cans, fairy lanterns were born.

These decorations have been such a success that the craftsman now travels 12 months out of the year . . . to demonstrate his work at art and craft fairs all over the country. Between shows, Barney returns to Little Rock to replenish his supplies and answer mail requests for the lanterns, which are priced between $3.00 and $7.50.