Recipe for Art: Bugle Bead Sun Catchers

Sometimes during a flare or especially painful lesions, those of us with HS are stuck in a loop of depression and inactivity. Art can help us to process our feelings and reprogram our brains, and briefly change our activities. Art is personal, not perfect!

This is a very basic project and the core items can be found at a dollar store. You will need clear or translucent colored bugle beads and some sort of metal pan to bake them in, like a muffin tin or small cake pan. It would be helpful to have a drill to drill a hole to hang the finished sun catchers as well as fishing line or even dental floss. In a crunch, you may be able to use a glue gun to attach some fishing line to hang up your sun catchers - just make sure the heat doesn't break the line. The oven will be heated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes or as long as it takes for the beads to completely flatten. Please make sure the room is well-ventilated as melting plastic is not great for our lungs. Allow the discs 30 minutes to cool before pushing them out of the pans.

Elevating our moods

Making these sun catchers allows for a variety of color combinations and patterns, really only limited by your imagination. Because you will be able to see the finished product relatively quickly, this should be a project that offers speedy satisfaction, and that kind of reward encourages you to want to make more. A burst of color lit up by sunlight that you have made yourself can help elevate your mood. Sun catchers can also give you a focal point as you process through anxiety or depression. Because these are so easy to make, they can also be easily replaced if certain colors and patterns no longer appeal to you.