The Sea Shell Wind Chime

AKA "The Bone Chime"

I am excited to finally reveal a brand new wind chime! I created this one out of sea shells and drift wood that I found at a recent trip to Charleston's own Folly Beach this summer. I call it my "Bone Chime" because the sound of the shells kind of sounds like bones clanging up against each other... not like I would know what that sounds like or anything.

"The Bone Chime"

I was fascinated by the variety of sea shells available at Folly Beach this summer. There were so many of them to choose from, in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. At the time, I wasn't quite sure what project I was going to do with them, but I was particularly attracted to the shells with holes in them. It was like these shells were created especially for artists- all ready for neatly stringing through wire for jewelry making. Or perhaps, like in my case, even making a wind chime.

I wanted to find out how these "magical" holes turned up in those shells in the first place. I figured they were formed by being worn down by the ocean or as a natural process for their species. Boy, how naive I was.

Other shells had their inhabitants plucked out by birds-
these shells had jagged chunks missing instead
of the perfect and uniform bores of the moon snails.

After doing a little research, I find it kind of ironic that something beautiful can be made out of something so brutal.

Here's a brief explanation by M. Paul Monfils-

"Such holes are caused by predatory snails, usually in the family Naticidae (commonly called "moon snails")... They use their radula, a sort of tongue covered with tiny toothlike projections, to rasp a hole in the [shell,] allowing them to insert their proboscis and feed on the soft parts..."

I read on to discover that this process is also painfully slow-

"A shell two millimeters thick (approximately the distance across the top of the letter w) can take eight hours to penetrate..."

According to these facts, not only were the shells eaten alive, but they were practically tortured by the moon snails in the long, drawn out process of being devoured.

Knowing this morbid fact about the shells made me feel somewhat remorseful for using them in such a whimsical way. But at the same time, I felt it had given these poor creatures some sort of extra purpose besides being a small snack for a snail. 

In a way, this truly is a bone wind chime because it is made from the "bones" of the unfortunate mollusks that didn't get to continue living their little clammy lives.

Unconventional drift wood was used for the base of this wind chime.

On a more positive note, I also found this beautiful piece of "drift wood" at Folly as well. I guess technically it's drift wood- the beach didn't have much to offer when it came to traditional pieces of wood. This is actually a shard of palmetto leaf, which are plentiful around the Lowcountry.  When I found it, I thought it was a piece of a wooden dock that had some how washed up on the beach. The surface of the branch's pale white color looks like it has been hand painted. I find it kind of beautiful how nature finds ways to mimic the artistic process, even if it's sort of harsh about it some times.

The shell bone wind chime posing outdoors with an unfortunate duo... a pair of snails.

How To Make a Bottle Cap Wind Chime

I am on a wind chime making frenzy! I just can't help myself. Something about found objects has been really inspiring to me lately. It all started with a crushed up beer can and some old shards of glass, but I couldn't stop there- I had to do more with this idea. I decided to experiment with some materials I saw show up very often when I scoured the internet for wind chime inspiration: bottle caps. I spied some great examples from various sources.....

This bottle cap wind chime by Pia Chaib
is so famous on Pinterest right now!

By Katrina Woerner

By Green Products

I definitely wanted to make one of these things, but I didn't want to leave my readers out of all the fun. So, I've decided to make this tutorial explaining how I created my own interpretation of the bottle cap wind chime. Let's get started, shall we?

Instead of throwing them away,  
mi amigos now drop their caps into
this re purposed coffee can.
Pretty crafty, eh?

 1. Collect your Bottle Caps

To make a moderately sized wind chime you will need to collect at least 40 to 50 caps. My wind chime ended up with over 70 caps in all. The exact amount will vary depending on how big you want your finished product to be. But heck, even if you run out of caps there are plenty of ways to improvise.

Personally, I happen to have a good connection when it comes to bottle caps supply- Many of my friends and family are beer enthusiasts that provide a steady stream of interesting caps.

It doesn't take long to collect enough bottle caps for your wind chime. I easy accumulated enough to fill the entire container within a month or so.

 2. Other Supplies You'll Need

 This is where you get to be creative. Exactly which additional materials you'll need depends on your personal taste and vision for your project. Gather up a variation of the following items:

• Metal Wire- You need this to link your bottle caps together. I used a thick aluminum 10 gauged wire, but you can also use thin 24 gauge (or any other size of you like.) You can pick this stuff up at any craft store or even Wal-Mart. Some wind chimes utilized circular metal hoops, like the ones used in jewelry making, but I found that wire was a lot cheaper and simpler to work with. By the way, you will also need some pliers and wire cutters (or scissors.) Don't ruin your hands by trying to manually bend the wires! These tools will make your life easier, trust me.
• Center Piece- This will be your base that you attach all your bottle cap links to. It just needs to be a sturdy and intriguing item. I encourage you to use a recycled found object! These random pieces of "junk" can end up being the perfect fit for your wind chime. Some great examples of center pieces include a vegetable steamer, An old CD, tree branch, tin cans, metal strainer, or like in my case, some salvaged gears from my old bicycle.
• Piercing Tool- Something to put holes in your bottle caps. The best options I found were either a hammer and punch or an electric drill, but I'm sure there can be others methods that work as well.

 

2. Making the Holes

 Use a hammer and punch or a drill with a small bit, depending on your preference and availability. 

Drills are faster, but leave a jagged edge around your
cap's holes. Punches provide a much cleaner hole, but
require more effort, and can bend the bottle cap
if not pierced properly.

I'm going to assume that you already basically know how to use the hole punching tools, or know someone who does.

It's pretty simple- lay the bottle cap flat face down on a piece of scrap wood (NOT your mom's favorite table!) and drill or punch the hole in near the edge of the cap.
 
Protip: Don't drill or puncture your hand, that would suck! Remember to be careful with this step. Don't be afraid to ask for help (I know I did.)

3. Constructing the Chains

Once all your bottle caps have holes in them, it's time to make the chains. Take your wire and cut a moderately short length. How much wire exactly is up to you, depending on how long you'd like each chain link to be. For the record, my wires were cut probably around 2-1/2 inches long.

 In my opinion, it's easiest to just eyeball it and adjust the chain links until you find a length that's pleasing to you. After you find a good chain link size, go ahead and cut out a few extra wire pieces- you'll need them.

Hook the length of wire through the bottle cap's hole. Leave one end with a long "tail." You'll be using this extra wire to attach the second bottle cap.

Wrap the length of wire around itself.

Tightly secure the wrapped wire. Use pliers to press the loop closed so the bottle cap will not fall off.

One bottle cap hooked on. 
Now, repeat this process with the remaining length of wire and another bottle cap.

Wrap...

Secure....

One bottle cap chain link complete!

Continue attaching the links together until you've reached
the desired length of your wind chime. I ended up using
six or seven bottle caps for each chain.

4. Attaching the Chains & Center Piece

This step may vary a little depending on what you used as your center piece. You will have to find a way to hook the centerpiece and the chains together with the wire. In some cases, like this particular project, it's fairly easy to wrap the wire around the base. Unlike my last wind chime project, where I had to drill holes into my center piece in order to attach the chains.

To hang my wind chime I made a weaving out of fishing wire around the bike gear and tied it off at the end. Simple, quick and effective. A piece of fishing line or regular wire would work, too.

All of the chains finally attached to the center piece.  My wind chime is now complete!

5. The Finished Product

The metal disks I used on the bottom of my wind chime are from cans of dough. I love the rusty patina they're developing after being exposed to the outdoors. A few random found object additions to your bottle cap wind chime can really create a nice embellishment. Plus, your bottle caps will make more sounds when they bump up against these items.

 If you want your wind chime to look "fuller,"
you could easily add more bottle cap chains
down the middle to make it look more dense.
Personally, I chose to only add chains to the
outside of my center piece, but I may go
back and add additional chains one day soon.

Serving up bottle cap realness.

If you end up using this tutorial for help, I wanna see your finished wind chimes! And as always, if you have any questions at all about this subject, by all means leave me a comment.

The Junk Windchime

The other day I got inspiration from an unlikely source. 

A crushed Budweiser beer can circa 1970.

My dad just randomly walked up to me and handed me this old, dirty, crushed up beer can. At first I was (naturally) confused, but then he explained the significance of this strange artifact- it's a classic Budweiser can from the 1970's.  You can tell how old it is by its use of a pull tab mechanism which haven't been used on beer cans in over 30 years. The idea that the can had endured for so long was incredible to me... It's almost twice my age and there's no telling how much it had already been through in its lifetime. For a piece of junk, that's pretty impressive.

 In a weird way, I have respect for this can.  I just had to do an artwork that implemented this gnarly artifact in one way or another.

My found objects
wind chime.

 That's where the wind chime idea came to mind. The crushed can wasn't the only strange piece of metal to accumulate in my area. I went out and searched for more "debris" and found many more fascinating trinkets and pieces. My dad also helped by donating some more metal pieces he found while at work. I raided my bead collection and found even more tiny embellishments to add. With my wind chime, I wanted to take these average, bits of industrial trash and transform them into a functional work of art. I think there is something especially inspiring about giving purpose to things that are normally considered useless junk.

This project was kind of different for me because I don't have much experience with building sculptures out found object. I usually just stick to two dimensions, so there was definitely a learning curve. It was kind of crazy to be so "hands on" with my work.. I had to thoroughly handle each piece, including all the rust, dirt and grime that came along with it. I also implemented a large amount of aluminum wiring, which is another material that is still somewhat foreign to me. Because of this, I had to be a little bit more resourceful with my tools. This time, I actually had to use pliers, crimps and wire cutters to get the effects I wanted in my artwork!

The finished result reminds me of a nest that an overzealous bird would build- Scavenging from bits and pieces of every shiny or colorful fragment it could find.

To string my objects on, I used old junk chains from broken jewelry I have accumulated over the years. They were perfect for the "industrial" theme I was trying to go for, and was great for attaching the charms too.

Some of my favorite components of the wind chime include these two "evil eyes" made from some more 1970's pop tabs.

 I like to think that they ward off evil whenever the wind blows.

Charms that I used in my wind chime include various bottle caps, metal cogs, buckles and broken glass bottles. It was an interesting challenge having to"beautify" each scrap, each thing required something a little different. Some things, like the glass shards for example, didn't need much decoration at all. They already look like shiny shards of crystal.

I even used charms on my charms!

. It started with a cruddy old beer can, but ended with a new found respect for discarded objects. Just about anything can be beautiful if shown in the right light.

My new found objects wind chime hanging out  on the trellis.