Tips for making beaded or glass suncatchers

Sun catchers can reflect the light and colors when hung under a patio in the sun, or a in a glass window or door. They will look beautiful and create a topic of conversation wherever they hang. Make them simple or as intricate as you like.

We can make sun catchers from a variety of different materials. Some suggestions for various types, Glass foil, beads, flowers or leaves, Plexiglas, clear contact, or thicker clear plastic. Whichever type of material you choose, use your imagination, and create something to do you proud.

BEADED CIRCLE SUN CATCHER

Materials required - Various colored glass beads, thread or wool, glue, a very thin piece of plastic tubing, scissors, metal loop, and a large needle. In addition, you need the end piece of a biro, the spring-loaded bit that you push in and out, which you will glue into the clear plastic.

Instructions - Draw a pattern on a piece of paper to show how you want the colors to look once threaded. Work out how many beads you want to be on each string. Cut the piece of clear tubing to approx 25cms long. Force some glue into both ends of the clear plastic tubing. Now push one end of biro part halfway into one end of the plastic, and then push other end of plastic on. Make sure biro end fits evenly into the plastic tubing, to form a circle.

You need to work out how many strands of beads you require and how much space you want to leave between strands. This pattern is for a small circle, so if you want beads to hand all the way around you could leave a centimeter between each strand, or put five strands together and then leave two centimeters between the next groups. The decision is yours.

Tip for threading- you could lay beads out on strips of masking tape close together and slide thread through beads or use needle to thread them on.

Thread your needle and tie a double knot in one end of thread. Force the needle and thread right through the plastic tubing, so that the knot is close to the tube. Glue the knot to the tube (this also stops knot from coming undone). Now thread your beads in the order of colors you chose. Tie that off, glue the knot.* Take up a new thread and repeat from * to*until finished. As the end of the biro takes up about one centimeter, start close to that and work out your spacing to allow for that.

Use the metal ring and cut three pieces of thread about twelve centimeters long. Tie the three together onto the ring, then, tie each end evenly spaced onto the plastic tubing so that it hangs straight. Now you have finished, hang it in the window, or out under the patio.

The kids could make other types by cutting out small circles of clear contact or different colored cellaphane papers and sticking pictures of animals to them and hang like wind chimes on thread. By using the clear contact, it saves using glue, and it lets the light reflect the image of the picture.

Let your imagination loose and have fun creating great sun catchers.