Kinetic Suncatcher Sculpture

One sunny day, I noticed that when the sunlight streams through our stained glass window, it casts a scatter of rainbow lights dancing on our wall. This inspired me to make something interesting with scattering sunlight.

I found suncatcher crystals online that turn a beam of light into many colorful dots of light. They look even more amazing when they move! This meant that to properly display the suncatchers, we would need to build a kinetic sculpture. I was inspired by the wave-like kinetic sculptures of Reuben Margolin.

We started with a proof-of-concept model with cardboard wheels and hanging strings of paper clips, where we tested out row-, matrix-, and circle-shaped designs. Once we finalized the artistic of the decorative part, we examined the design of the mechanism. The mechanism is hard to design, as the heavier the hanging items are, the more stress is on the system. This can make the sculpture warp and increase friction, making the sculpture harder to operate.

Material

1. Christmas Wreath Boards (Wood) x 2 with 64 holes on the outermost circle and 32 holes on the second outermost circle.
2. Black Matte spray paint.
3. M4 x 300mm 304 Stainless Steel Fully Threaded Rods.
4. M4 nuts.
5. One set of M2 nut and screw.
6. 12” Reusable Black Straws.
7. Phillips Chicago Screws M5x25.
8. 10mm Mini Split Jump Ring with Double Loops.
9. Stainless steel chain.
10. Nylon Rattail Satin Silk Trim Cord for Jewelry making or knotting.

Optional: decoration pieces

1. 5" Rectangle Crystal Suncatcher Window Prism Pendant ( We got this from Temu which come in with the strings)
2. Crystal Garland Strands - Hanging Chandelier Gem Bead Chain - 14mm Clear Octagon Prism Diamond String Decorations

Tools

1. Creality Ender 3 3D Printer
2. Drill

Paint the two wreath boards (front and back) black.

Drill a 9mm diameter hole at the center of one of the two boards. This will be the top board. The one without the center hole will be the bottom board.

Cut the straws to slightly shorter than the 300 mm rods. Use the straws as spacers and screw the two wreath boards together.

There are 64 holes on the outside most circle. Mark 4 holes on each board with equal spacing along the circle.

Construct the frame as shown.

You may need extra supports if your hanging decorations are especially heavy.

Connect two 10mm mini split jump rings with a couple of stainless steel chain rings, then attach one of the rings through a hole on the outermost circle on the top board. Make and attach 16 of these chains to the outermost circle and another 16 chains for the second outermost circle. Make sure they are spaced out evenly.

Print out gears in the attached file.

Fold one long cord in half and secure it to one hole on a small string wheel as shown. This way, there are two cords coming out of each hole. Repeat for all holes on both small wheels. There are 8 holes on each wheel, so we should have 16 cords on each small wheel. Cut all cords to an equal length.

Install one small wheel to the upper wheel with a Chicago screw and a nut. Secure the other string wheel to the lower wheel.

Attach the upper wheel to the top board by inserting the plus-shaped axle on the upper wheel through the hole on the top board. Secure the axle to the bottom wheel with an M2 screw and nut as shown.

Run each cord attached to the upper small wheel through one of the holes on the outermost circle on the top wheel. Run each cord attached to the lower small wheel through one of the chain connectors.

Attach the sun catcher pendants to the cords with jump rings.

Adjust the length of the cords so that the pendants form a gradual wave pattern as shown, or come up with a design of your own! Be patient with this part.

In our design, the pendants attached to the upper string wheel support are higher and the ones attached to the lower string wheel are lower, so they form two separate wave patterns.

Trim off extra string.

Feel free to try out different decoration/pendants! For example, I also tried to use chandelier gem bead chains instead of sun catchers. It still looks amazing in the light, and the the gem bead chain is lighter and much easier to manipulate.

Cut out a black paper circle to cover the holes on the bottom board.

Enjoy!