Rainy Day, Coffee & Crystals: My First Adventure Making Sun Catchers

Apparently all it takes is one rainy day at the lake house, a collection of beads and absolutely no ability to just sit quietly and enjoy a vacation.

And that, my friends, is how we ended up making sun catchers.

I had packed beads for the cottage because, naturally, one should always travel with coffee, clean underwear and an emergency supply of beads. I had been wanting to try making sun catchers for a while, and a grey, cloudy day seemed like the perfect opportunity.

There was only one small flaw in this plan.

Sun catchers involve tiny jump rings, little pieces of chain, sparkly beads and the ability to actually see what you're doing.

The cottage, meanwhile, was approximately three clouds away from complete darkness.

Enter the headlamp.

Yes. I sat there making pretty, delicate, sparkly sun catchers while wearing a headlamp.

Creativity is glamorous.

Coffee was also heavily involved, obviously.

And Somehow...It Worked

These were my first sun catchers, so I fully expected there to be a learning curve. Possibly some colourful language. At least one piece assembled completely backwards.

But no.

They went together surprisingly seamlessly.

I started playing with metal focal pieces, lengths of chain and different combinations of crystals and beads. Once I had the basic construction figured out, it became one of those wonderfully addictive projects where you start thinking:

Maybe one more crystal here...

What if this chain were a little longer?

Ohhhh, look at THAT bead.

And suddenly you've made another sun catcher.

The real magic, of course, didn't happen until the clouds finally moved along and the sun came out.

That was the moment.

Those little crystals that had looked pretty sitting on the table suddenly started catching the sunlight, throwing flashes of colour around the room and proving that perhaps the woman wearing the headlamp knew what she was doing after all.

Let's Talk About the Sparkly Stuff

If you're thinking about making your own sun catcher, bead choice really does matter.

You can use all kinds of pretty beads simply for colour and decoration, but if your goal is to actually catch the light, look for transparent or translucent glass and crystal beads, particularly ones with facets.

Those little flat surfaces give the light more angles to bounce from, which means more sparkle.

And then we have my personal weakness:

AB beads and crystals.

AB stands for Aurora Borealis, and it's an iridescent finish applied to the surface of a bead or crystal. Depending on the base colour, lighting and angle, you'll see flashes of pink, blue, purple, gold, green and other colours.

In other words: exactly the kind of completely unnecessary sparkle that I consider absolutely necessary.

A Few Things I Learned About Choosing Sun Catcher Beads

Clear crystals are fabulous rainbow makers.
Don't overlook them because they seem boring sitting in the package. Put a beautifully faceted clear prism in direct sunlight and suddenly it has a personality.

AB finishes add colour before the sun even arrives.
They're especially pretty when you want the sun catcher itself to look colourful on a cloudy day as well as sparkle when the light hits it.

Facets are your friend.
Smooth beads can certainly be beautiful, but faceted glass and crystal pieces tend to give you more flashes and reflections.

Mix sizes and shapes.
I like having smaller crystals supporting one larger focal prism. Teardrops, octagons, rounds and other shapes keep the finished piece from looking too uniform.

Glass and crystal generally give you more sparkle than acrylic.
Acrylic absolutely has its place — it's lighter, inexpensive and comes in endless colours — but if I'm choosing the stars of the show, I'm reaching for glass or crystal.

Don't judge your beads under craft-room lighting.
This one is important. Hold them near a sunny window before deciding whether they belong together. A bead that looks rather ordinary under a lamp can become spectacular in natural light.

Don't Forget About Weight

This is where my bracelet-making brain had to make a small adjustment.

A sun catcher hangs.

Profound information, I know.

But that means every crystal, piece of chain and metal finding is adding weight to whatever is above it. I found it helpful to build the design from the focal piece outward and keep checking how everything hung as I worked.

You want movement, but you don't want one tiny jump ring carrying the entire Crystal Palace.

Use sturdy jump rings, chain and connectors appropriate for the weight of your pieces, and make sure every connection is properly closed before hanging your finished sun catcher.

And if you're planning to hang one outdoors rather than inside a sunny window, choose your wire, chain and other components with weather exposure in mind.

The Best Part? There Really Aren't Many Rules

That's probably what I enjoyed most about making these.

They're a little bit jewellery making, a little bit home decor and a whole lot of let's see what happens if I put this sparkly thing beside that sparkly thing.

You can work around a moon, star, heart, hoop or whatever metal focal piece catches your eye. You can create perfectly symmetrical strands or make every dangle different. You can stay with one colour palette or embrace the full rainbow.

And if you already make jewellery or collect beads?

Go through your stash before buying anything.

Those random crystal beads that weren't quite right for a bracelet may have just found their calling.

Well...That Escalated Quickly

I made the first few sun catchers thinking this would simply be a fun little vacation experiment.

Apparently other people had different plans.

They started selling almost as quickly as I could make them.

Which is lovely.

Also mildly inconvenient when you've just discovered a new craft and would personally like to stare at your creations for at least 24 hours before someone takes them home.

So, naturally, there will be another batch.

I have more crystals to play with, more combinations I want to try and considerably better lighting now that I'm no longer crafting inside a cloud-covered cottage.

Although I'm keeping the headlamp.

You never know.

Coffee will still be mandatory.

Because apparently The Paper Artist has wandered from paper...to beads...to hanging crystals in windows.

At this point, I think we've established that we're not putting limits on things around here.

And I'm perfectly okay with that.