Autumn has come, imagine you are sitting in the yard and enjoying the warm sunshine. What could be better to help you get rid of all the trials and change your mood so that you could just rest on the rocking chair and feel the fresh breeze? What else could be better to spend days and nights relaxing on the front porch, accompanied by some charming rhythmical sounds created by the nature?
Windchime is the key to realizing all these sceneries. Typically, a wind chime is made from suspended tubes, woodchips, bells, or other objects often made of wood or metal. Whether you plan to hang them outside or inside, they will be great ornaments for places like porches, terraces, and balconies and also for gardens. However, for craftsmen and craft- lovers, that’s not enough. An idea just comes out from nowhere, what if we combine two handcrafts together to make it a more personal and meaningful item? By that, I mean windchime and picture frame. Wonder how it is done? Keep reading.
Body of the Wind Chime
The body of a wind chime refers to the subject that all the other things like ornaments will dangle from. Therefore, choosing a proper item that is sturdy enough to hold up the weight of decorations being hung from it is of great necessity. Moreover, it should bore easily as sometime you need to do some drilling and punching for the string.
Stick & Branch
If you happen to live near the forest, you can just use local materials and pick some nice tree branches around. Do remember to make sure they are thick and sturdy enough for the decoration that you decide to use later. Then you can back to your studio and tie them together into one with ropes, you can also choose to make them into any shape you like and fix them, creating a rustic and casual feeling.
Message Board
If you have a personal motto that you want to remind yourself of living an optimistic life, try this: Prepare an empty wooden board, which could be old or discarded, and engrave the words on it with a knife. Do be careful with the carving knife! For the sake of safety and convenience, you could write them down as a draft first and then carve along the mark. This also works for the situation where you are making the wind chime as a gift to your friends. In this case, instead of mottos, you could write down best wishes or any good words you read from books and would like to share, making it a meaningful and comparably unforgettable gift for your friend.
Picture frame
Now let’s turn our sights on the leading role today—Picture Frame. This is the first place where we could apply picture frames to the decoration of the wind chimes. It’s pretty simple, you just have to pick out the picture frames you need. If you prefer the industrial style, go with metal picture frames; if you favor the vintage or rustic style, go for wooden picture frames; if you like the modern and simple style, choose the plastic picture frames. There’s one thing you must be aware of: Make sure that the material you choose can be easily drilled so that it can be attached with strings, but also sturdy enough to hold all the hanging decorations.
Wreath & Garland
If you are a big fan of Boho, check out this idea! Dig out an old wreath from last Christmas or other holidays, or directly make a new one with thin and soft branches and flowers if you are ingenious enough. Given that most of the wreaths are light, therefore, you might need to reinforce them with the help of cardboard to make them tough enough to hold the decors. Plus, with the help of the leaves and flowers, the holes and knots can be easily covered thus enhancing the aesthetics of the wreath, meanwhile, creating a romantic and rustic feeling.
Besides the items mentioned above, a lot of things can be used for making the body, depending on the placement of your wind chime or the style you want your place to look like.
Items to Hang Off the Body
Now it comes to the key and integral part of a wind chime— noise makers. This process could be kind of painstaking, as you will be surprised to find out that it’s not as easy as it looks to find good noise makers, despite that there seem to be various small items that could produce a beautiful musical sound. On the contrary, things that you don't expect to work may produce perfect tinkling sounds. Take a look at four materials that are widely used.
Metal pieces
Do you think of yourself as having the sense of observing life? If so, have you often noticed the clear liquid voice? Sometimes, the most dulcet sound comes from the most common objects in life unexpectedly. Have you noticed the sound of keys jingling during the walk? It is common but could be inspiring as well. That’s also where the idea of hanging keys for creating melodious sounds came from. Ironwares like nails and heavy bolts obviously work the same, they are common in life and could produce awesome sounds while hung together.
Metal pipes are another commonly used element while making wind chimes, especially making one with a clean and industrial feeling. Only this time, it’s not easy to DIY all things by yourself as that’s the work of a real blacksmith. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to purchase ready-made tubes from hardware stores and do the rest all by yourself.
Fan of Woodware
Do you fancy woodwork? If so, do consider implementing some wood elements to create a rustic feeling in your place. You could start with something simple and easy at the beginning, like wood chips and bamboo. Just simply cut the wooden board into the shape you like, and do the same thing with bamboo if you like the unique green. Best of all, you could add words like motto by carving.
If you want to move forward and feel more involved, take these steps: First, cut out 32 pieces of wood panels from a huge board, and make them the same size. Secondly, glue every four panels together to a frame and put them aside for drying. Next, prepare some cardboard and cut 8 pieces of board from them, and make them the same size as the frame. If convenient, prepare some acrylic glass. Assemble them together then. This looks familiar? Surprise! Following all the steps, you now have made 8 mini picture frames! Your mini pictures and photos now have a place to go! That’s also the most romantic thing that I can think of to add meaning to a wind chime.
Turn Old Stuff into Beauty
Being nostalgic and can’t get rid of the old junk? Diversify your mind! Be more practical and turn them into something beautiful. Find all sorts of old pieces you don’t need and put them together into a wind chime. No matter the sea shells, loose pearls, or even broken glass( make sure they don’t have sharp or jagged edges), as long as they are heavy enough to make sounds in the wind. They will look more interesting than you think and they will also be more eye-catching. And believe it or not, this fusion could create a unique vintage feeling.
What to Use For Tying
In the end, let’s briefly introduce some material that you can use to tie the noisemakers to the body of the wind chime. Transparent nylon string could be an ideal choice for its resilience and toughness, it’s also great for creating a simple and modern feeling and match well with items like metal pipes and colored glass. Meanwhile, twine is more suitable for hanging items that are more rustic, like clay, shell, and woodware, only that it requires regular maintenance and is more sensitive to environmental conditions like humidity.
With all these methods and tips we introduced. Now that you can picture the scenery of your memory swaying in the air and making a pleasant sound.