How to Make a Resin Suncatcher

1. 1

   Step 1: Spray the Wood Suncatcher Blank Gold to Seal the Cut Edges

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   Lay the bare blank in a cardboard box and give it three or four light passes with metallic gold spray paint rather than one wet coat. Tip the box and move the can around so paint reaches down inside every cut edge.

   Those edges are raw plywood. Left unsealed they drink up resin and the color bleeds into the grain as a dark halo. The gold does a second job too, standing in for the lead lines that separate the panes in real stained glass.

   Tip:

   Let each coat dry to the touch before the next one, and give the last coat a couple of hours before the contact paper goes on. Paint that is still soft will lift straight off with the paper.

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   Used in this stepmetallic gold spray paintwood suncatcher blanks

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2. 2

   Step 2: Press the Blank Onto Contact Paper and Trim the Overhang

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   Press the painted blank face down onto a sheet of clear contact paper. Rub it down hard along every wood bar so no air is left anywhere underneath, then cut the overhang away with scissors.

   Flip it over and burnish the paper again from the back, working along both sides of each channel. That paper is the floor your resin sits on. Anywhere it lifts, resin creeps under the design and dries as a thin skin you have to scrape off later.

   Tip:

   Resin tape grips tight corners better than contact paper and peels off in one piece. Crafting in the Rain notes in her supply list that it is what she would reach for next time.

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   Used in this stepclear contact paper

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3. 3

   Step 3: Mix 1.5 oz Part A With 1.5 oz Part B and Stir Two Minutes

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   This epoxy is a one to one mix, so both halves are measured the same. Pour 1.5 oz of part A into a graduated cup, then 1.5 oz of part B on top of it. Three ounces total fills a six inch piece with a little to spare.

   Stir with a wooden stick for at least two full minutes, scraping the sides and the bottom of the cup as you go. The mix clouds over at first. Keep going until it runs clear again. Bubbles in there are fine. Cloudiness is not.

   Tip:

   Under-stirred resin cures soft and tacky in patches and there is no fix once it sets. Run a timer for the two minutes instead of guessing at it.

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   Used in this steptwo-part epoxy resin kitgraduated mixing cups 250ml resinnitrile gloves

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4. 4

   Step 4: Tint the Resin With Alcohol Ink and White Mica Powder

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   Split the clear resin between six small cups, one per color. Drop alcohol ink into the cups you want light to pass through and stir each until the color is even all the way down. A single drop goes a long way.

   The clouds get white mica powder instead of ink. Mica turns the resin opaque and leaves a faint pearly swirl in it, so the clouds read solid against the translucent bands. That contrast is what makes the finished piece look lit rather than flat.

   Tip:

   Tint the pale colors first and the dark ones last and you can use one stir stick for all six. Going the other way drags purple into your yellow.

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   Used in this stepalcohol ink setmica powder pigment set resinwooden stir sticks resin craft

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5. 5

   Step 5: Pour Each Resin Color Into Its Own Channel

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   Work one channel at a time and pour slowly off the lip of the cup so the resin does not jump the wood divider into its neighbor. Fill each channel until the surface sits level with the top of the wood, no higher than that.

   Resin will not crawl into a sharp corner by itself. Chase it into the points and tight curves with a popsicle stick, then switch to a straight pin for the spots the stick is too fat to reach.

   Tip:

   If two colors do touch across a divider, lift the bead back with the pin right away. Once the resin starts to gel you are stuck with the blend.

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   Used in this stepstraight pins

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6. 6

   Step 6: Heat-Gun the Bubbles, Then Cure the Resin Three Full Days

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   Sweep a heat gun over the surface from a few inches up, keeping it moving the whole time. The heat thins the resin for a second and the trapped bubbles rise and pop. Hold it in one spot and you will blow the colors into each other.

   Then leave the piece alone on a level surface for three full days. It will feel hard long before that. A suncatcher hung at 24 hours can still dent under a fingernail and print the window glass.

   Tip:

   Set an upturned box over it while it cures. Dust and pet hair land on wet resin and there is no way to get them back out.

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   Used in this stepheat gun for resin bubbles

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7. 7

   Step 7: Hand-Drill Two Hang Holes in the Cured Suncatcher

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   Once the resin is properly hard, peel the contact paper off the back. It comes away in one sheet and takes any resin that crept underneath along with it.

   Bore two holes in the top edge of the wood frame with a pin vise, the little hand drill you turn between your fingers. About a quarter inch deep is enough. Space them evenly either side of the top so the piece hangs level instead of tilting.

   Tip:

   A pin vise gives you control a power drill cannot, and it will not skate across cured resin. Worth owning if you make anything that needs a small hole in it.

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   Used in this steppin vise hand drill

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8. 8

   Step 8: Thread the Waxed Cord Through the Eye Hooks

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   Twist a mini screw eye into each hole by hand, then finish the last turns with pliers until the threads are buried in the wood. Fingers alone will not get it tight, and a loose eye works its way out under the weight of the piece.

   Run waxed cord through both eyes and tie a square knot at each end. Trim the tails, then pass each cut end close to a flame for a second so the fibers melt together and stop fraying. Hang it on a suction cup hook where the light gets through.

   Tip:

   A drop of super glue in each hole before the screw eye goes in makes it permanent. Worth doing on a heavier piece or one hanging somewhere people walk underneath.

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   Used in this stepmini screw eye hookswaxed cotton cordneedle-nose pliers craft jewelry

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Keep going

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