Hardware Cloth Sun Catchers

Materials:

1/4" grid hardware cloth *
wire snips or kitchen shears
6mm clear plastic faceted beads
needle small enough for beads
nylon filament fishing line
clipart, pattern, stencil or drawing
1/4" graph paper
pencil
colored pencils (optional)
metal file (optional)

* Hardware cloth is available at the hardware store or at home improvement stores. It usually comes in 2' x 10" rolls for around $13. Often at small hardware stores, you can buy it by the foot, but be certain that you get the shiny silver. It looks better hanging in the window.

1. Cut three 3-inch squares of hardware cloth. Craft snips work well or use kitchen scissors with serrated blades.

2. Find or draw a simple shape that you like--a heart, a smiley face or a dragonfly like the one we used. It was a stencil. Transfer the pattern to the graph paper using a pencil (figure A). Using differently colored pencils for each color bead you will be using makes it easier to follow (figure B).

3. Thread about a 15- to 18-inch length of the nylon filament fishing line onto the needle. If you prefer to use a double thread (easier to see), simply double the length of line used.

4. Starting in the upper left corner of one of the hardware cloth squares, tie the thread with a knot around the top wire of that first square (figure C). Leave a tail of about 2 inches.

5. Thread one background bead on the needle and slide it all the way down until it rests securely in the top square.

6. Put needle down through the second square (figure D) and bring it back up through the first one, wrapping it around the wire at the bottom of the first square (figure E). Pull it snug around the wire to secure the first bead then pick up another bead and repeat the process. Repeat the process of adding a bead and wrapping the line around the cross wire until you have filled every square in the piece of hardware cloth. Be certain to change the colors of the beads following your pattern.

NOTE: As you are working, you will come to the end of the line long before you will fill the square. When you are a few inches from the end of the line, tie a double knot (figure F) around whatever wire you are working on; then run the thread back through the last three or four beads (figure G). You will no doubt find this easier to do if you do one bead at a time. Cut any remaining line. To start a new one, tie a knot around the wire two or three down from where you added the last bead, and thread the line up through the beads, ending with the last bead you stitched through (figure H). Continue as before.

7. When you have filled the square of hardware cloth, tie off the line with a secure knot (figure I).

8. Repeat the stitching process on the remaining two squares of hardware cloth. Our sample sun catcher was made with the top and bottom squares alike and a different color pattern in the middle square.

9. Use the fishing line to secure each of the beaded squares together (figure J). Tie a length of line to the top square and hang in a window.