Activity #5: Pressed Flower Sun Catcher

Maybe you have seen beautiful stained glass windows in a home, a church or an art gallery. These beautifully colored panes of glass are held together with lead “cames” (framing) and are used to create images of people, animals, stories, and abstract art.

Stained glass windows were common in English religious houses, and churches in England were filled with beautiful stained glass windows. With the closing of some of the religious houses by King Henry VIII, England lost most of its religious stained glass. Fortunately, by the beginning of the 1800’s, the art of stained glass was seeing a revival (coming back) in England.

The stained glass you see in the Great Hall at Agecroft Hall contains the initials of one of the home’s owners in England, R.L. (Robert Langley) and the family crest of William Dauntesey, a later owner of the manor. When you visit Agecroft, see if you can find them!

Do you have any sun catchers hanging in your home? Don’t they just come to life when the sun is shining through them?

Let’s get out the supplies for Day 3, Activity #5 and make some lovely sun catchers that look like stained glass! You will need to collect some flowers and leaves from your yard or garden and have a pair of scissors on hand.

Steps.

1. Gather leaves, flowers and flower petals from your yard or garden. Make sure they are not too fat and thick.

2. Lay out your flowers and plants on a flat surface, and work on designing a pattern for your sun catcher. Do you want to make a symmetrical (even and matching) design or one with no particular order?

3. Open your hoop by turning the knob at the top, and separate the two circles.

4. Remove the paper backing from one piece of the clear contact film and lay it over the smaller circle with the sticky side facing up. Put the larger circle back over the clear film and the smaller hoop. You will likely not need to tighten the hoop, but you can if your film feels loose.

5. Gently place your pattern of flowers onto the clear sticky film and push them down lightly so that they stick.

6. When your design is complete, carefully remove it from the frame by separating the circles. *Be careful to not let the film fold in on itself and stick together.

7. Peel the backing off the other piece of contact paper and press it on top of your design making a sandwich. Smooth the film down as much as you can. You may have some air bubbles left under the film if your flowers and leaves are a bit thick. That is okay. The light will still shine through!

8. Place the sandwich back into the hoop, centering it carefully. Tighten the hoop if you need to.

9.Cut the extra ends of sticky film from the edges of hoop.

10. Hang your sun catcher in a sunny window with the suction cup hook. Make sure to send us a picture of your work! If you know the names of the plants and flowers you used, make a record of them in your field notebook.

Project source: twigandtoadstool.blogspot.com