Upcycled Life: Jar ring suncatchers

If you preserve food or can in jars, you know the struggle to find ways to upcycle the jar rings and lids.

These suncatchers are a way to reuse the rings and brighten your window. For mine, I used glass gems. You can easily adapt this project to include pressed flowers or other small objects that catch the light.

Start with cutting a clear piece of plastic from a clam shell container (like a strawberry box) to fit inside each of the rings.

Set your glass gems on the plastic and find the arrangement that works best.

Use clear glue to fill in between the gems until it looks like all of the spaces between the objects is filled and the glue is about halfway up the sides of the gems.

Set on the wax paper to dry. When the glue is dry, hang in a window.

Katie Patterson Larson is the director and founder of Art Salvage. Art Salvage keeps usable materials out of the waste stream and makes them accessible and affordable. For more information, visit artsalvagespokane.com.