Suncatcher UTEE jewel enamel tutorial

Translucent UTEE jewel enamel is wonderful when the sun shines through it so I decided to create a suncatcher for my bedroom. The colour scheme is Santorini..so rich blues, sea greens and turquoise.

I wanted to create lots of discs with texture but thin enough to gently turn in the air.

I had heard that pouring UTEE straight into a cutter could be done as long as you use some sort of release  agent so I decided to try Versamark and pushed the cutters into the pad to coat the metal.

This method is easier than pouring onto a texture tread and then cutting out as it gives a sharper, cleaner edge and means you pour the mix less often so you can keep random swirl effects and of course you don't have to keep re-melting. I wanted three different sizes and was able to pour all three each time plus they cooled very quickly enough to carefully remove the cutter and do another pour before totally set. Very efficient!

choosing a part of the pattern

pour into the cutters

the cutter removes very easily

ready to take of the mat

I had some deep blue transparent left over from a previous project and a couple of pieces of a turquoise so I broke pieces off and added to clear then using a cocktail stick dabbed small spots of melt ink into the mix trying not to mix too much. It was a bit of a compromise because I didn't want too solid a colour and I also wanted good swirls.

I used blue, chartreuse and Paris green melt inks

Sometimes it worked others not so much!

this one is lovely

I poured the lovely deep blue separately as that is pure Santorini.

Finally I used a large bezel to create the  heavier central disc and used a texture tread to "stamp" onto the UTEE when still soft. Once cold I removed the disc from the bezel.

I love the way that the texture tread creates some parts matte and others shiny. I used the heat gun to enhance the gloss.

now all I have to do is create the actual mobile