Wednesday, June 6, 2012

vintage wind chime

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 by Rebecca Sower
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



the top silver cup

the biscuit cutter in the middle


the "ball" lid near the bottom
 
"16 years" added to the brass disc with the Dremel engraver at the very bottom



I hope to have many more happy years listening to its charms!

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