Large Suncatchers

My first ever piece of stained glass was a suncatcher that still hangs in the loo window!

Our house had a long metal-framed window on the staircase with a bluebird at the top and a galleon at the bottom. The frame had badly rusted and most of the galleon was beyond repair. The window was also incredibly cold! We took the decision to remove the window and replace it with a new double-glazed unit. I removed all of the glass, preserving most of it for future use, and kept the bluebird for a new project.

The sunburst is all cut from a single sheet of glass, choosing the light and darker parts for each ray as appropriate. This is made using lead came throughout and hangs on sturdy chains in front of a new window on the same elevation of the house as it was originally. It catches the morning sun and always brightens the day.

Some designs follow the same process as the small 100mm diameter suncatchers like this large monstera leaf:

150mm diameter rainbow:

This suncatcher is a larger (and much heavier) commission. Like the Bluebird, it is all leaded construction:

Suncatchers don’t need to be circular! Here’s one for Halloween:

A multi-coloured giraffe made as a gift. I have repeated this design once in a different colourway:

A Welsh Dragon for Welsh relatives! This design was drawn by my daughter and we then worked on it to make it work in glass:

I made this one for myself. This large suncatcher has a polished slice of a real ammonite fossil in the centre:

Coo is after the wonderful paintings of Highland Cows by Steven Brown. It’s 150mm diameter: