Making Stained Glass SunCatchers

 

The delightful stained glass suncatchers we will make,will brighten up a sunny window,and the good part is that these are inexpensive and simple to make.

Things You Need:

• Glass (any size and thickness you wish)
• Craft knife(for cutting leads)
• Liquid lead(available in bottles and tubes from arts and crafts shop)
• Transparent glass paints(available in variety of brands and shades from arts and crafts shop)
• Paint thinner(available from hardware stores and are used to thin the tarnsparent glass paints)
• Thin marker(for tracing the design on the glass)
• Paint brushes of various sizes.
• Solder
• Soldering Iron
• Solder Flux
• Masking Tape
• Copper Foil
• Copper Wire
• Grey Patina
• Thin Chain(for hanging the suncatcher)

The Method:

1. Choose a template and get it enlarged, the size you want your suncatcher to be.
2. Once you have your template enlarged,ask your glass merchant to cut the piece of glass,the size slightly greater than your template so that you can get your stained glass suncatcher looped and hanged after its complete,but please make sure to ask your glass merchant to rub the glass edges with the sand stone so as to prevent your hands from cuts.
3.  Clean the glass with glass cleaner.
4. Once you have your glass and template ready,it's time for copying the template and completing a stained glass painting.
5. For copying a template to the glass,outlining with lead and for using transparent colors to the glass please follow: http://living4artncraft.blogspot.com/2010/09/stained-glass.html.
6. Once you have your completed stained glass in your hand and it is completely dried,it's time for transforming it in a delightful suncatcher.
7. Wrap the edges of the glass with the copper foil as done in: http://living4artncraft.blogspot.com/2010/12/using-solder-and-soldering-iron-for.html
8. Make small loops from copper wire and attach them to the top two corners of the suncatcher with a drop of solder.Flow solder round the edges of the glass and along the loop themselves.
9. For soldering instructions: http://living4artncraft.blogspot.com/2010/12/using-solder-and-soldering-iron-for.html
10. Using a soft rag,rub grey patina over the soldered areas so that they co-ordinate with the adhesive lead.
11. Attach a thin chain to the loops and hang the suncatcher in front of the sunny window.