Winter Sun catchers
A finished sun catcher hanging in a Maple tree
It has been a cold, cold winter here in Maine! Sure, that sounds like an obvious statement—isn’t Maine always cold in the winter? But this season has been consistently and stubbornly frigid. At least one source I found said January was one of the state’s coldest in many years. Coupled with the isolation resulting from the pandemic, this winter has been one to contend with. But it’s not just the dream of warmer days to come that has helped us feel a bit more upbeat at Nature Links. Lately we’ve been exploring ways to celebrate the cold. From reveling in this video of Eritrean refugee children seeing snow for the first time to appreciating the amazing art created in this year’s U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship, we’ve been doing our best to admire the beauty winter can bring.
Riding that wave of winter-positivity, we recently made winter sun catchers. This sweet winter craft is not only beautiful to look at, but it can help provide purpose and a bit of hope on the iciest days. Winter sun catchers, sometimes called ice ornaments are easy to make with materials found both around the home and in nature. They can also be made in nearly any size or shape depending on the container in which you assemble the materials. They only take a few minutes to create, but the anticipation of the process of freezing (much like baking) can be its own tiny thrill. Layering up with warmth to hike through the snow and hang them on a tree outside, for me, became my reason for getting outside one day. Finally, enjoying their beauty through the window inside can provide a quiet moment to reflect on the gifts winter can bring (and can help us all feel a little less grumpy about the cold!).
A few materials we gathered to decorate our sun catchers
After a few days, these sun catchers will inevitably melt (except for on the coldest of cold days), reminding us that winter is truly fleeting, and that the warmth of the sun will once again bring us springtime! We just may have to wait a little bit longer…
Materials:
Previously boiled, but now cooled water
Twine or colored string
A small Tupperware container, a muffin tin, an aluminum pie tin or silicone ice mold
Items from nature including thinly sliced citrus fruits, pine needles, winterberries, pomegranate seeds, filling, like acorns, winterberries, sliced citrus and pine needles
Man-made decorations like colored paper or food coloring (only things that will biodegrade or could be safely picked up by critters in your yard)
Step 1: Place the items you’ve collected for decoration in the bottom of your container. Feel free to assemble them, but do note that they will likely shift around quite a bit once you add water (if adding food coloring, you can add a few drops as well or wait until the sun catchers have frozen just a bit).
Step 2: Hang a generous loop of twine or thread off the outside of each sun catcher, making sure the string is dipped far enough inside the water so it will freeze and provide strength for hanging.
Step 3: Pop these in the freezer (or just set them outside) and wait a few hours until they are solid.
Step 4: Bring them out of the freezer and gently set in a few inches of hot water to loosen the frozen sun catcher from its container.
Step 5: Layer up and find a sunny spot that’s visible from a window to hang these up. We hung ours in a tree outside my son’s crib where he could see it.
Making these sun catchers is a simple process, but it can help us all be more positive about the winter weather.
