Dancing Star Suncatchers/Ornaments

Who doesn’t enjoy colorful, joyful little suncatchers in their window?

I save a lot of the scrap glass that is left over from most stained glass projects. Some pieces are much to small for any additional use and so are discarded (into recycling, not trash). But then there are the bigger bits… Those are ideal for making into these little dancing stars. I keep a small oaktag pattern piece at my cutting table so I can check right on the spot to see if a leftover bit of glass is big enough. And then those pieces of scrap are stashed to be reused for making these dancing stars. The finished suncatchers are about 2″ by 2″, and can be made with any glass, with any (complementary) color center. I’ll be making lots of red stars soon, from scrap leftover from making a big pile of cardinals last December. What other color combinations would you like to see? Most are all one color glass, but I also make rainbow versions. At $10 each, these are terrific gifts, lovely handmade Christmas tree ornaments (I can put ribbons on those for easy hanging), or just a little colorful suncatcher to hang in your window.

I’ve got several small bins getting full with scrap glass so I think I will making a lot of these little dancing stars as I go. They are nice, quick little projects to do in between bigger ones.

Dancing Star ornaments and suncatchers

Stained Glass Ornaments: Red Birds

When I started making cardinals in stained glass in late 2011, my friend, Tracey, asked about stained glass ornaments of red birds. I did not have any at the time and was not able to work on any new patterns before Christmas. Wasting little time, I wanted to get started early on them for this year.

I based these also on the same cardinal photo I used to create the pattern for the cardinals in stained glass. My intention was to make a fairly simple pattern, just a few pieces of glass, so they could made fairly quickly and easily. I am very curious if people like them.

Stained glass ornaments - red birdsIn the end, I wound up with three  sizes, which you can see illustrated in the gallery. The largest seems too large to function as an ornament but would make a lovely suncatcher in a smaller window. I used a different glass on this one than the other two, a brighter red that’s more translucent than transparent. The other two samples were done in red waterglass, which looks lovely in a window with light coming behind, but probably would be too dark to hang on a tree. So, ornaments would likely get made in the brighter red going forward. I also did each in a different patina for variety, with black on the largest, copper for the middle sized, and silver on the smallest. I need to get matching chain and ribbon for copper patina, a finish I actually hadn’t done on anything for a while. Time to stock up! I’d also used a darker brown glass for the beaks on these, and would use the solid black glass going forward.

Thanks for looking, check out more photos in the gallery, enjoy, and please do let me know what you think!

Stained Glass Single Tulip Suncatchers

Switching from fauna to flora for this one. My friend, Jen, is an amazing woman with a remarkable new local business called the Elf Shelf. She makes custom gift basket arrangements, and delivers them with her son, Nick, a terrific young man with numerous disabilities and also the most amazing ability to make anyone smile. Jen loves tulips, and she’s just inspiring with how she brings so much energy to everything she does, so I decided to make her a stained glass tulip.

Single red tulip bulb in stained glassI just wanted to do something very simple since I wasn’t sure what sort of window space she would have for a piece. I found a pattern on line with several tulips, and I downloaded that, making some edits and adjustments to create a single tulip bulb with a couple of leaves. Used red waterglass for the tulip itself, black patina on the seams, and it turned out nicely. Luckily, Jen loved it!

Large tulip, using all wispy glass.The more I looked at the tulip, though, the more I realized that, to me,  a tulip has a longer, more tapered body. So off I went to find a good photo of a single tulip bulb, and then work that into a pattern. I still wanted to keep the finished pieces fairly simple and wound up doing two sizes, to see what would work best. And because I don’t do anything without going whole hog, I made three samples in each size, with red, yellow and purple glass for the flowers, and various greens for the leaves. There’s a gallery of stained glass flowers works in progress now, as well, if you would like to see what I made.

What do you think? Different colors, different sizes? I think I am partial to the one with purple waterglass. What flowers should I try next?

Large tulip, using a purple swirl waterglass for the bulb.