The Living Room Transformation: From "Oh" to "Wow"
A customer in Des Moines, Iowa, recently shared a wonderful experience about how a gloomy, overcast afternoon was completely transformed by her two SunRain prism suncatchers. She had hung them in her living room on the southwest side of the house, where they served as quiet, decorative glass ornaments in the window.
One afternoon, she had a friend over for a visit. Looking at the window, the friend noticed the shiny glass ornaments and asked what they were. The customer explained that they were specialized prisms designed in a sunburst pattern. Since the sky was grey and cloudy, the friend simply said, "Oh," not thinking much of the hanging glass ornaments.
At that exact moment, the sun peeked out from between the clouds. The effect on the room was dramatic and instantaneous. Saturated stripes of brilliant rainbows suddenly landed across the floor, the furniture, and the walls, lighting up what had been a gloomy, dark afternoon.
Upon seeing the room explode with color, the friend's polite "Oh" instantly turned into a breathless "Wow!" It was a perfect, spontaneous demonstration of the quiet, waiting magic packed into every one of these handmade pieces.
"The room changed dramatically... her 'Oh' turned into 'Wow' the second the sun came out."
Rainbows in the Redwoods: Suncatchers on an Antler Chandelier
A customer in California wanted to find a unique way to bring natural light and vibrant color into her rustic, cabin-style home. The house featured beautiful floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlooked a wooded setting, with a large antler chandelier hanging prominently in front of them.
She decided to custom order three SunRain prism suncatchers from John: one with a custom blue resin center and two with green resin centers. She hung all three pieces directly from the antler chandelier. Even though they were positioned high above the dining table on the chandelier light frame, they received plenty of direct sunlight through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
She loved how they looked as decorative art on the antler chandelier, and was absolutely thrilled by how they changed the entire room when the sun traveled around to the western side of the cabin. When direct sunlight caught the green and blue centers, it threw beautiful colors and patterns across the space. One of her green suncatchers is shown in the close-up photo, casting brilliant, sharp rainbows against the darkened interior wood walls of the cabin.
"I love how they look and how they change the room when the sun travels around to the western side."
Architectural-Scale Brilliance: Shifting Iridescent Centers in Alaska
A customer in Alaska wanted a spectacular art piece to hang in the two-story glass window on the end of her home. Hanging a suncatcher in a window of that height and scale presented unique challenges, so she worked closely with John to figure out custom hanging solutions that would secure the piece while keeping it perfectly positioned.
In addition to finding a robust hanging solution, she wanted a custom aesthetic for her suncatcher—specifically, an iridescent center core. To bring this vision to life, John researched new craft methods and discovered an innovative way to color the resin core using an iridescent film.
The resulting design exceeded expectations. Because of the unique properties of the iridescent film, the center of the suncatcher shifts color dynamically based on the angle of the light and direction of view. In certain lights, the center looks a rich, warm pink, while in other lights, it shifts to a brilliant, cool green. This beautiful, shifting centerpiece now brings double-story light magic to her Alaskan home.
"John found a nice way to color the resin core with iridescent film... sometimes pink and sometimes green!"
The Power of 25 Prisms: A Maker's Perspective
"I have been constantly surprised and fascinated by the incredible rainbows and light effects this unique design has produced," John notes. "There is no other suncatcher currently available built in the specific method that I use. Putting 25 high-quality prisms together in a single suncatcher is incredibly powerful."
The series (shown above) illustrates the beam of colored light emitted from various prisms. I stood right in front of the light spectrum so I could change the camera position to be under adjacent rainbow colors. Depending on incident angles from the sun, some facets light up but others do not, so move slowly to capture it.
"If you put your eye directly in the line of sight of the spectrum, which has six or seven distinct parts, the color you see corresponds exactly to the band of light on your eyeball," John explains. "It's an intensely dramatic and quite beautiful phenomenon to study. And don't worry—while the light is incredibly vivid and brilliant, studying it did not hurt my eyes."
"There is no other suncatcher currently available built in this method. Putting 25 prisms together is powerful."
More Reviews from Our Customers
"Going thru a remodel but cannot wait to hang in my kitchen windows and let the light show begin!!"
"I ordered two of these as gifts. The quality and craftsmanship are outstanding. John clearly puts love into every piece. Both recipients were thrilled."
"My office faces west and by 2pm every day the entire room is full of rainbows. My coworkers keep finding excuses to come to my office. Best work purchase I've ever made."
"Bought this for my mother who is in assisted living. She calls me every sunny morning to tell me about her rainbows. Worth every penny just for those phone calls."
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