Friday, April 30, 2010

Coast Chimes Facebook Shop

My Coast Chimes Facebook Shop

There is a new feature for Facebook: Shops. I just opened mine this morning. Easy to set up. Easy to shop.

What I like is that I can offer a discount to my FB fans. To become a fan, all you have to do is be a member of FB, visit my Coast Chimes page, and click on the thumbs up, like, button. Then when you visit my shop (Shop Now tab found on the Wall of Coast Chimes), you will see the discount automatically applied. You can also shop without that, but you will not get the discount.

The only problem I see so far is that the images are kind of small. My images are made to be viewed large, as they always show the entire work, and then details of the various components. So this may be a problem I'll have to consider.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Hooks and Connections, Copper, Handcrafted

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The handcrafted copper hooklets and connectors for the beach stone clappers on my wind chimes, five sets. The two simple tools shown, and my hands, are all I use to make these copper works.

I have many tools, including many expensive ones like my saws and my drills. I like them all. But I take the most pleasure in my very simple tools, such as the wood spindle pictured above. With that simple, oversized pencil (and the pliers), I make all my copper hooks and connectors.

Shown above are five sets of small copper systems for attaching the beach stone clappers to my wind chimes. I string it all together with fine copper wire, and add a hammered antiqued copper windsail.

It 's time consuming to make each chime section— very labor intensive, with great attention to detail. But that's what makes it special.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Etsy Collection: Most Popular

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wind chime, windchime, beach stone, copper, handcrafted
Natural Pacific beach stone wind chime with five antiqued copper chimes. Click here (Etsy) for more information.

I was having a look at my statistics from Etsy, the art and crafts site, this morning, and noted that out of my 113 listings, the one above has the most 'hearts.' A 'heart' means someone likes and marked the listing. I can see why: I also really like my beach stone works.

This one being on sale for a very good price may also have something to do with the number of hearts it has received. In fact, the price is so good I am surprised no one has grabbed it yet.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Wind Chime, Freestanding, Copper, Beach Stone

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Freestanding large wind chime, with a smooth, rounded natural beach stone base.

I really like beach stones, and I like working with them. I have made quite a few large freestanding wind chimes incorporating beach stones for the base, but just last week I had a new idea.

In the past, I searched for stones with rounded, smooth tops, and flat bottoms. Suddenly, I saw that a rounded bottom might work even better, and also look even neater. My theory in practice works perfectly. The stone is very heavy, at about forty pounds, and the gently rounded bottom means that although this base can nicely wobble, even if you bend the chime all the way to the ground it self rights. Very cool! So this style turns out to be impossible to tip or blow over.

I love the rounded smoothness of this stone. A detail picture of the stone is at the bottom of this posting. More information is available on my website, Coast Chimes, or on Etsy.

Click on the picture to see it larger.