Ghost Tries to Walk a Bat - Stained Glass Suncatcher

I made this cute suncatcher to put you in the Halloween spirit!

Pattern

Stained glass

Sharpie

Glass cutter

Glass breaking pliers

Glass grinder

Dawn dish soap

Black backed copper foil

Fid tool

Flux

60/40 Solder

Soldering iron

Flux remover

Black patina

Glass polish

Jump rings

Metal chain

Needle nose pliers

Face mask

Safety glasses

Latex gloves

Black Puffy paint

Scissors

Print out your pattern and cut it along the black lines

Pick out the color and type of glass you would like to use for this project

Use the cut out pattern pieces to trace on your glass.

Remember to number each piece as you trace it

**If you chose a textured glass be sure to trace on the flat side

Using a glass cutter and glass breaking pliers, cut out your traced pieces

Remember to put on your safety glasses!

Using your glass grinder, grind all the edges of your cut out pieces to make them smooth and fit together

**Still wearing your safety glasses

After you've finished grinding and you're happy with how your pieces sit together it is important to take each piece to the sink and wash it with dawn dish soap. This helps get all the dust and small glass fragments off your pieces. Use a towel or paper towel to pat dry

Next we are going to take our black backed 7/32 inch copper foil and wrap it around the edges of each piece, one at a time. You want the glass piece to be in the middle of the copper foil, having equal amounts of foil on each side. Once you've wrapped your piece, use the fid tool to smooth and flatten the foil on both sides and the edges of the glass piece.

**Remembering to wear safety glasses and a mask ....

In this step you are going to see your suncatcher come to life. Working on one side at a time, we are going to start with flux, the flux needs to be applied to your copper foiled edges for the solder to take. You are going to start with the joints of your pieces (where two or more pieces join together). This is important to keep your glass pieces from moving around.

Take your brush and dip it into your flux and brush it on to the copper foil of the joint pieces. Then your going to take your soldering iron and take some solder, apply it to the joint pieces you applied your flux on. This will create a solid solder dot keeping your pieces together.

Once all your pieces are held together by a dot of solder you can continue to flux the rest of the copper foil. After you applied the flux you can apply solder lines. This is done by holding the solder in one hand and the soldering iron in the other hand, slowly move the solder touching the soldering iron to make the solder melt onto your copper foil. This will create nice smooth, solid, beaded solder lines.

When you are happy with your solder lines, you can flip your stained glass piece over and solder the other side.

The edges come last. After you've finished soldering you'll see the edges are still exposed copper foil, you're going to take a little bit of flux and brush it all along the outside edge of your bat and ghost. Take a little bit of solder and run it along the edges of your bat a ghost, just covering the copper with the silver solder.

Next we are going to add our jump rings. This will be used to hang the completed piece on the window and attach the ghost and bat together.

First we'll start on the bat, you can choose however you want your piece to hang, I wanted the bat to hang evenly so I chose the two points the wings on each side. You're going to use your needle nose pliers to hold your jump ring, apply flux to the ring and to the bat where you want to attach the ring. As you hold the ring with the pliers - trying your hardest not to move - take your soldering iron with a little bit of solder and solder the ring onto the bat. You will repeat this process with any other place you want to put a jump ring.

From the finished product you can see I placed my jump rings on the two points of each bat wing and on the reaching arm of the ghost.

Next we are going to take our bat and ghost to the sink! Using warm water you are going to rinse the flux off of the bat and ghost using flux remover. This will help prevent corrosion on your suncatcher.

We will be using Black Patina to change our solder lines from silver to black. Apply the patina to a cotton ball, tooth brush or old towel and gently wipe it along your solder lines. You can see the color change happen almost immediately, just keep going over the solder lines until you've reached the desired darkness.

***Remember to wear gloves! - I got caught up in the photo taking that I forgot to put on gloves

Apply polish on both sides of the bat and ghost, using a cotton ball or soft towel. Put a little bit of polish on your glass and just rub it around until the streaks are gone. This will also help keep your suncatcher looking shiny and new.

Here we will be adding a little detail and life to the ghost. You can certainly skip this step if you prefer.

I wanted to add a little personality to my ghost so I took some black puffy paint and created a facial expression. I thought it would be cute for the ghost to be surprised that the bat was taking flight on their walk :)

Almost done! We are going to use the chain to complete our project.

First with the bat's leash. Use your needle nose pliers to open the jump ring enough to string the chain. Next take the chain and wrap it around the bat's neck to make a collar. However tight or loose you'd like the collar, string the chain onto the same jump ring. Close the jump ring it should look like a chained collar on the bat.

Next, take the chain along the bat's body to make the leash. However long you want your leash to attach to the ghost jump ring, cut the chain that length. Following the same process of opening the jump ring enough to string the chain at the end of the leash. Before you close that jump ring you will attach it to the jump ring that has been soldered onto the ghost. Now your bat and ghost should be attached by the chain leash.

Last we will attach the chain for the bat to hang. Using the same method of attaching the leash to the ghost we will do the same to hang. Cut the chain to the desired length for hanging. Open a jump ring to string the chain, and the ring soldered to the bat and then close the jump ring.

Hang your completed suncatcher in a sunny window as you watch the leaves fall and munch on some Halloween candy :)