Melt My Heart - Ice Lantern Mold

Melt My Heart

Create your own romantic winter wonderland with this simple ice lantern mold

Melt My Heart is a heart-shaped mold to create frozen ice lanterns. The minimalist mold prints in one piece, no supports. It produces simple yet stunning ice lanterns that will inspire love in the coldest of hearts. Perfect for winter events, romantic evenings, or seasonal displays, this mold lets you transform ordinary water into glowing hearts to stand on guard for thee 🍁❄.

Features

• ❄ Creates a hollow, freestanding heart-shaped ice lantern

• 🔥 Safely holds a tealight or LED candle

• 🧊 Melts gradually thanks to built-in chimney designed to funnel heat away from ice walls

• ✨ Produces a radiant, icy glow as light refracts through frozen walls

How to Make An Ice Lantern

1. Prep your mold by wiping the inner surface with a tiny bit of oil (eg, veggie or mineral).

2. Fill with warm water.
   OPTIONAL: add red food colouring to tint yours red/pink.

3. Place in cold environment -- either your freezer or outdoors when the temps are significantly below freezing.

4. Check for leaks & top up with warm water if needed.

5. Once your ice is fully set (minimum of 24 hours at -15°C or colder), remove from mold by running warm tap water over the back side of the mold.

6. The ice lantern will slide out smoothly -- you shouldn't need to force or twist it, just be patient with the warm water!

Tips for Successful Ice Lanterns

3D printed molds are NOT water tight and I did find mine leaked a bit before fully freezing -- to minimize this try:

• Printing smaller layer heights and at least 2 walls or 100% infill

• Topping up with warm (not hot) water after the initial freeze to avoid air pockets

• Try coating the inner surface with a tiny bit of oil (I used veggie oil and it helped significantly)

• OR for a more effective water barrier you can coat the inner surface with a thin layer of varathane or resin to make it water-tight

• If freezing outdoors:

  • The colder the better -- ice will form at just 0°C / 32°F but its not really cold enough to freeze a block this size solid. We had a "warm snap" with lows of only -5°C when I was testing these and I ended up freezing most of mine in the freezer (-17°C) instead of outside.

  • Don't place molds where there will be sun! Even on very cold days this can cause surface thawing or delay freezing.

If you make one of these, please share photos of your own ice lanterns!