everyday art: June 2012

On my long list of things to make was a "vintage-find" wind chime.

My inspiration came from a couple of photos I saw on pinterest...

baby mobiles by Madeleine Boulesteix at Blogesteix

and...

Handmade windchime, a photo by Rebecca Sower on Flickr.

I thought it might be an interesting "gift" for my husband for our upcoming anniversary. So I moved it up in the queue of "to-do"s.

I know what you might be thinking, "a girly wind chime for your husband?"... It is sort of on the order of a husband giving a blender to his wife as an anniversary gift. I wanted to make it though, therefore, I rationalized that it would be a "gift" for both of us to memorialize our 16th year of marriage.

The end product:

Anniversary Windchime DSC00150 by everdayartdesign

everyday art design's anniversary wind chime

I shopped at a couple of local second-hand and "antique" stores.
What I found:
sliver plate baby cup
crystal chandelier prism
zinc "ball" canning lid
silver plate spoons, fork, butter knife
stainless biscuit cutter

I had purchased a few things off of ETSY earlier this year that- at the time I had no specific use for- I just knew I loved them and would use them eventually:
foreign coins
old keys

a few other items:
washers
nuts
several different chains (from a home improvment store and craft store)
floral wire
a drill bit that would drill through metal
a stone necklace pendant (on clearence a year ago at a craft store)
a blank brass disc
numbered brass discs (from an online office/shipping supply store)
wire cutters and a couple of needle-nose pliers
a Dremel electric engraver (I searched at several craft and home improvement stores looking for a tool that I could use to draw images or words on metal... It was hard to find... finally a clerk at Lowe's found one for me- even though he didn't think they carried such a thing.)

I so enjoyed the process of making the wind chime!
shopping
laying out the design
drilling the holes
working the links
giving it
hanging it