Homemade for Christmas

Archive for the ‘windchimes’ Category

Last month we were wandering the gift shop at a local tourist attraction and my daughter fell in love with this

A great way to share old family silverplate that you don't use anymore.

set of windchimes made from old silverware. I looked at the $100 price tag and sucked in my breath. I can make that myself, I thought. And so I did, for $4.00 including recycling what I had  lying around the house. What a great homemade Christmas gift.

After repeated trips looking fora sugar bowl, I finally found one at a  thrift store. It’s stainless steel surface didn’t quite match what I had in mind, but a few dings with the hammer a, some touches with the wire brush, and an indelible black marker gave it the patina I was looking for.

The silver was purchased a few years back, to add to our current collection which I rarely use. I have wonderful stainless and I think it looks better on my table. Garage sale.

The glass beads came from old necklaces I no longer wore, or had already fallen apart. They needed restringing anyway and I like the beads better in these, then I ever did around my neck.

The chain is not silver, only silver colored. Why would you use real silver in a wind chime, anyway?

I flattened the silver plate pieces with a regular hammer and a steel plate. You could just use a cement block. Flattened they make a much better sound. Stainless is really too hard to work.  Stick with silver plate. It’s easily found by digging through the bins at the thrift store or hitting garage and estate sales. The trick I learned after breaking the drill bit, is that you need to hold the drill straight and push slowly.

I strung the beads on heavy fishing line. Using a double back string, to go back through the beads I’d already strung and then securing with a bit of permanent glue. This should hold for a while. My daughter plans on hanging this in her kitchen. Outside, you might to do something a little sturdier. The jump rings that hold the chains to the sugar bowl should probably be soldered for outside use.

So there you have my first attempt at beading, and wind chimes. It took me about four hours, mainly because I don’t know the tricks of beading, but they’re coming. I found the project relaxing and a sure savings over the gift store’s $100 price tag. Another thing that is really cool about this project is that most of the materials are recycled.

If you have old silverware or silver objects that you’ve inherited and have a family history when was the last time you used them? This is a good way to recycle not only those pieces, but to share the family treasures with your children in a way they will appreciate. We have a silverware case full of tiny demitasse spoons that we will never use. We plan to turn them into bracelets for our grand daughters this Christmas, but that’s another story.