Hooray for online music streaming! The days of toting CDs with us in order to hear our favorite songs are long gone. Alas, the CDs themselves are not. What can we do with our stacks of once-indisposable disks? Well, old CDs are an extremely versatile crafting medium. They have a manageable shape that can act as a canvas, but you can also cut them into other shapes. There are tons of online tutorials for making iridescent mosaics from cut CDs, and even a birdbath you can DIY with some old CDs. But have you imagined piecing together a stained glass-like suncatcher made from this material?
Instagrammer @_julyiav_ showed off a seemingly effortless process of creating a hanging CD mosaic jellyfish dotted with crystals, wire adornments, and glue “bubbles” that glisten in the sun. The copy-worthy design isn’t as simple as it appears, but it’s definitely doable. Try your hand at this project with a small stack of CDs, thin and thick wire, a fine-tipped permanent marker, a piece of paper, a pencil, clear beads such as Mulutoo crystal acrylic beads, a metallic acrylic powder such as Repulos silver chrome nail powder, and a clear nail top coat. Also grab a glue gun, a utility knife, scissors, wire cutters, and a hair dryer. With some helpful tips, you can whip up your own without muttering too many four-letter words.
Foundations for your fish
To kick off this creative way to use those old CDs, you need a pattern for the jellyfish outline. If you’re confident with your freehand skills, pencil out a sketch on paper that’s the same size you want your suncatcher to be. For the less confident, you can search the net for a picture of a jellyfish and print it out. No printer? Tape a piece of white printer paper over the picture on your screen and gently trace the image in pencil. Divide the jellyfish shape into a collection of curvy sections in pencil, and cut out the paper shapes.
If you’ve tried to cut CDs with scissors in the past, you’ve probably noticed that cracks tend to form along the cut edges as the blades slice through the plastic; you get better results if the pieces’ metallic sheen is smooth and unmarred. This is where the utility knife and hairdryer come into play: Use the utility knife to help you peel off any labels on the disks, then trace each cutout shape onto the CDs with your marker. Next, set the CD on a heat-safe material and use a blow dryer set to high to warm the label side of the CD until the surface takes on a different appearance. You may want to wear gloves for this process. Score the outlines with the utility knife and cut the shapes out with scissors. If the CD cools too much between the scoring and scissor cuts, reheat it with the hair dryer.
Joining the jellyfish pieces
Arrange the CD cuts into the shape you’re aiming for. With a screaming hot glue gun, attach pieces to each other with thick seams and edge the jellyfish’s outline in hot glue. During this process, the gun’s nozzle may accumulate a layer of glue that could affect its performance. Keep your glue gun clean with a piece of aluminum foil; wearing heat-safe gloves, use it to wipe away excess glue from the nozzle. Next, grab your acrylic nail powder and brush it over the glue seams and edging, wiping up any stray flecks of powder. Follow this with a clear top coat to protect the silver finish.
Then, snip off two or three pieces of thick wire that are about the length of your jellyfish’s longest tentacle. Bend them into wavy lines and glue them among the tentacles. Cut a few pieces of thin wire, too, and bend them into zigzags and curves to glue either straight onto the jellyfish or to hang among the tentacles. Slide beads onto a few of the wires, plus make glue dots and attach beads at various points around the jellyfish. Finally, trim off a long strip of thin wire to hang your creation. Twist the wire into a loop to glue onto the jellyfish, or liven it up with a few beads before curving it into a handle. For a more secure hold, hold a thin nail over a candle with pliers, and use it to poke a hole through the top of the jellyfish. String your wire through the hole, hang, and enjoy!
