If you’re wanting to make a cute but super simple and easy Valentines craft, this DIY valentines rainbow maker tutorial is perfect for you.
It was only a few months ago that I started adding gems to my stained glass projects, and now I want to add them to everything. There’s something special about making colorful light dance around a room, and it pairs so perfectly with the light refractions in your stained glassworks.
Just like the piece, this tutorial is simple and focuses mainly on how to add even more rainbow-making pieces to your glass.
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What is a Rainbow Maker
To turn your stained glass into a “rainbow maker” it’s simply adding prism gems to your piece so they create a rainbow effect when the light hits them. Think of those super popular rainbow window clings, but with actual jewels and other materials that create the same effect.
You can use faceted beads and gems. Both of which will be used in this tutorial.
Supplies You’ll Need
For this DIY we’re going to custom create part of our chain, and mix it up with some regular chain. Creating the custom chain allows up to add even more beads for a more intense rainbow effect. For this you’ll need:
- 20 Gauge tinned copper wire
- Beading tool set
- Beads of your choice – I went with these faceted crystal beads. Just keep in mind the faceted property is what creates the rainbow effects.
And to add the most rainbow effects of all you’ll need a good faceted crystal gem that we’ll attach to the bottom of our dangle. Think of this as the main focus piece apart from the stained glass piece we’ll include in the middle.
You can use just about any faceted crystals you find, but I personally recommend these chandelier prisms because they come with a variety of different styles, and a smaller round gem with each one. I like to take these all apart as soon as I get them and mix and match with different stained glass pieces. Since the smaller crystals have two holes, one at the top and bottom, you can use these higher up in your project to create even MORE rainbows.
We’re going for ALL the rainbows here. 😉
You’ll also need a good chain that will pair well with our custom chain. I used something like this stainless steel curb chain.
Of course you will also need a set of jump rings to connect all of your pieces together.
Designing Your Valentines Rainbow Maker
Typically with DIY tutorials I just stick to a design I’ve already created, however this is such a simple project – feel free to add your flair of creativity and make it your own! The design I’ve made is shown below. I used a mix of my custom chain with the faceted beads and the stainless steel chain, and added a simple, red stained glass heart before finishing it off with my crystal.
I’m sure you see how you could mix and match and change things to make this however you want it. You could make the entire chain with crystal beads, you could add more than one circle crystal, more than one stained glass piece. Have fun with it <3
Creating Your Custom Chain
Once you have the design of your chain figured out and you know how long it needs to be, you can start setting aside the crystal beads you want to use.
If you use the same faceted crystal beads then you can mix your beads using one big, one small, or even different shaped beads. In my chain I used the round beads and did a pattern of little, big, little, big. For the top portion of my chain I used a total of seven beads.
To start your chain off you’ll need to create your first link as shown in the image below:
To create these links you follow these steps:
- Cut roughly 5” of 20 gauge tinned wire
- With your round tip pliers that come in your beading tool set, place them roughly 2” from the right end of your wire and create a loop around your round pliers
- Holding the loop you created straight with your round pliers, use your gripping pliers to wrap the extra wire around 2-3 times
- Cut the remaining wire off the end
Here’s a simple video demonstration to make it easier:
Adding The Stained Glass Piece
If you’re following along and making the same chain as me then all you’ll need to do is cut and grind down a heart any size that you like.
I freehanded my heart by using tracing paper so that way I could flip the first half over and use it to draw the other half. This way the heart is symmetrical.
I contemplated making my heart into two pieces, but in the end decided to keep it just one piece, and used hobby came around it instead of copper foiling and beading my edges. Either way will work for this though. Since the piece is small, and there won’t be a lot of weight pulling on the top or bottom, it won’t hurt to just use tape and use one piece of glass.
If you design a larger element to go here and don’t use hobby came, you may want to include a break line where your jump ring will go. This is so that the copper tape doesn’t pull away over time.
Also, if you do not yet have a ring saw, you’ll want to make the heart two pieces since cutting and grinding such a deep groove in the top of the heart will be very difficult.
If you’re placing your stained glass heart in the middle of your chain like me, be sure to attach a jump ring to both the top and the bottom.
Continue attaching all your pieces together with your jump rings, and if you want to make your piece extra, extra strong you can even solder all your jump rings closed. Although, this piece is so light it really isn’t necessary.
And that’s it! Now you have your own Valentine’s rainbow maker chain! A quick and easy craft that you can mix with your stained glass for any occasion. <3
