Large Kaleidoscope Sea Glass Wind Chimes

Kaleidoscope Wind Chime by Coast Chimes

I have been working really hard, preparing for the fast approaching Sunshine Coast Art Crawl where, if history repeats, things should be hopping at my studio. It is the most exciting event of the year, but it does take an enormous amount of preparation. At the same time, I increase my stock enough to have lots available for the Christmas rush, which follows fast after the art crawl.

Just now, I have finished 10 rectangular large kaleidoscope wind chimes. They turned out really well, so I am very pleased. They are a striking addition to any garden, yard, sundeck, or porch. My entire collection of kaleidoscope wind chimes and suncatchers can be found here: Kaleidoscope Works.

Now I am cutting, polishing, assembling copper chime sections. This is one of the most labour intensive parts of all my duties. I hope to get nine sets assembled this week, and then I can move onto mid-sized freestanding beach stone chimes.

Photographing with Smokey Skies, Coast Chimes

Artist-made Sea Glass and Copper Outdoor Wind Chime

  This is a season of preparing for the very popular Sunshine Coast Art Crawl (October 19-21, 1018), and the quickly following Christmas shopping rush. I need a lot of stock to cover these two events, so my summer is spent busily creating.

Aside from making many great wind chimes and suncatchers, I need to photograph all that stock. That's typically just fine, as the garden looks good as a backdrop, and the sun in the early morning is quite nice for taking pictures. But this year half the province of British Columbia is burning, and although we don't have any major fires nearby, we do have a lot of smoke which blocks much of what would otherwise be blue skies and pure sunshine. Oh, oh!

Well, it turns out that this bright summer sun filtered through smokes is actually kind of nice light for taking pictures of my work! I was fearing a great backlog of works to photograph but, happily, I am snapping away with better results than expected. The light is not harsh (like noon sunshine), nor dim like too early in the morning, and the background is not too brightly illuminated, either, meaning I do not have to deal with underexposed foregrounds, overexposed backgrounds.

So there are a lot of brilliant new works on my website-- why not check it our? Visit Coast Chimes and see them, and some half decent pictures.

Natural Pacific Beach Stone Wind Chime

Natural Pacific Beach Stone Wind Chime

Five Antiqued Copper Chimes

Find it at Coast Chimes

Pretty much all my designs are heavily inspired by the beautiful natural environment in which I am fortunate enough to live in-- the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia. But many of my designs actually use materials found in nature, right on my doorstep.

This wind chime is a prime example of that. The stones come from my local beach, where I spend a good deal of time selecting them. At home, I put them together in what I find to be an appealing arrangement, and then I drill through each stone to connect them with a very strong copper wire.

The chimes take even more time. Raw copper is okay, but with a lot of elbow grease and some high-quality products, that copper can really glow. Also, I spent many years tweaking the design, until I found exactly what I wanted: beauty, durability, pleasant sound.

Why not visit Coast Chimes and browse all the amazing wind chimes and suncatchers? There is free shipping to the USA and Canada, even for big, heavy items like this impressive wind chime.