Stained Glass Spiderweb

Black glue and permanent marker combine to make colorful translucent spiderwebs!

Supplies to make a stained glass spiderweb….

This project does require a few supplies but most of them are things you’ll already have around the house.

The base for this project is a poly page protector. You know those clear envelopes that keep standard sheets of 8.5 x 11 paper clean and protected. One of those will actually yield two pieces of the poly because you can use both sides.

You’ll need permanent markers. Colored Sharpies are the best for this. (And, you’ll use them for a million other projects when this is done!)

We made homemade black glue. It’s easy and there are several different ways to color the glue. See four different black glue recipes here. If you don’t want to add that extra step you can buy black glue that’s ready to go!

You’ll also need a few basics like scissors and tape to hang your rainbow spiderweb.

Let’s draw a spiderweb…

Let’s start by drawing a spiderweb. I’m working on 8.5 x 11 copy paper with a Sharpie marker but the materials/colors for these make no difference. This drawing is really just a guide for where the black glue lines will go.

Start by drawing a do somewhere near the middle of the page, precision isn’t important here. Draw a series of 4 or so lines that stretch from one edge of the paper to the other, intersecting the dot near the middle.

Start near the middle and draw a somewhat curved line between that loops from one of the ling straight lines to the next. Normally, with a drawing, I’d encourage my students to draw as many lines as they want. More details are better, usually, but not here! Because these lines will be traced with black glue if they’re too close together there’s a high risk that the lines will blur together.

Fewer lines in the spiderweb ensure that the glue lines stay put and will not end up as a glue blob!

If you want to see some tips and tricks for drawing a spiderweb check out this post about how to draw a spiderweb!

Drawing with black glue….

Slide the spiderweb drawing into the poly page protector. Remember the spiderweb drawing is just a guide and will not be a part of the finished drawing.

Grab the black glue and start by outlining the ling straight lines that cross the entire paper. Experiment with how open the glue nozzle should be to get smooth, even lines then move on the lines that round the spiderweb.

Depending on the humidity in the air these glue lines will take anywhere from a few hours to a day to dry. Make sure the artwork is lying flat to dry. Otherwise the glue will slide down the page and you could return to a mess!

Make a rainbow spiderweb…

Once the black glue is dry grab a handful of Sharpie markers. Any colors will do here. We chose a rainbow effect but you could also choose to use all warm colors, cool colors or darker colors for a “spooky” effect.

I recommend beginning to color in the middle of the spiderweb and working your way out so that your hand is never laying in fresh color. The really fun about coloring with markers on the poly page protector sheet is that it’s slippery and smooth and the markers color so easily!

Colors blend from one to another in a way that markers don’t do on paper. Experiment with layering one color over another.

Hang up your rainbow spiderweb….

Slide the spiderweb drawing out of the poly page protector. Cut around the edges of the spiderweb, cutting all the extra plastic away. Hold the colorful web up to the light and notice how the colors shine through the translucent plastic.

Use a few loops of tape on the back of the spiderweb to hang it in the window and watch the light shines through!