Beach Combing Sunshine Coast, BC

Exceptional Swimming and Beach Combing Beach
Sunshine Coast, BC

It's a rare day I don't get out for a walk along one of the beaches here on the Sunshine Coast, BC. It's in my job description!

I need to find beautiful beach stones and lovely driftwood for my wind chimes and sun catchers. It's one of the more pleasurable parts of my work. But it's an awful lot more fun in the late spring and summer than in the winter rains! I plan it as my main vacation, taking extra time, bringing along a book to read for a bit, having a swim or two. That's good stuff!

All the better, when I find something great, like this amazing piece of driftwood I found yesterday (sorry, no pic yet). 

Thanks to my Specialized Turbo Vado e-bike recently acquired, I have been discovering some 'new' shorelines. It is astounding that after living here for 25 years, there are still places to discover not far from home. The beach pictured above is only a 10 minute bike ride away, and I never knew it existed! Best of all, it turns out it has fantastic stones for my needs (no, not all pebble beaches are created equal in that department-- most have stones that are not shaped as I like them to be, smooth and rounded).

Visit the Coast Chimes Website to see new, fantastic beach stone and driftwood works.

Glass, Copper, Large and Small Oyster Shell Wind Chimes

Cobalt Blue Glass
Antiqued Copper
Oyster Shell Wind Chime
$185 Free Shipping at Coast Chimes

Beach combing is an enjoyable part of my work, especially during these warmer, dryer months. Lately I have been finding some really nice half oyster shells, and as you can see from the picture above they suit my designs exceptionally well. They become quite bright and translucent when the sun shines through them, from behind.

I have also been making some smaller, more economical chimes with oyster shell, such as the beautiful wind chime pictured below.

See all my wind chimes and suncatchers, art for the home and garden, at Coast Chimes.

Glass, Copper, Brass

Oyster Shell Chime

$87 Free Shipping at Coast Chimes

Kaleidoscope Sea Glass Large Copper Outdoor Wind Chimes

Kaleidoscope Wind Chime
at Coast Chimes

Busy days at Coast Chimes. Lately, the focus has been on making Kaleidoscope wind chimes. They take a long time to make, between all the handmade hardware on the chimes, the double brushing, the treatment of the copper, the artist-made sea glass, the cedar box frame, and so on...

But the end result is breath taking. Even after all these years, as the light filters through from behind I am freshly impressed by the effect. So cool!

I just finished a series of rectangular style. Soon I will be making more diamond-shaped ones, both big and small style. In between, I'll take a little break from the woodwork, and make some glass small and large wind chimes and maybe some suncatchers for those who either do not like chimes, or who are not allowed to have them in their condo (by the way, if you are in such a situation, a lot of people hang these wind chimes indoors-- really nice!).

We will likely soon be into even warmer days, and those are the days I wait all year for. I will take 2-3 hours off each sunny, warm, afternoon to hike, bike, laze on the beach with a book, swim. That's my sort of holiday!

Visit my website to see all the new kaleidoscope wind chimes, and other good things, too! Coast Chimes

Zen Art

Zen Natural Pacific Beach Stone Chime
$75, Free Shipping, at Coast Chimes

It's very exciting to discover a new beach that has more than the usual nice smooth rounded beach stones. So expect plenty of awesome beach stone (and driftwood, and glass!) wind chimes to appear on my website and on Etsy in the coming weeks. The one photographed above is the classic Zen Chime. Something about the simplicity is extremely attractive. It's well balanced!

I like to point out to customers visiting that an interesting difference between my glass and the beach stones is that the glass looks best in the sunlight (especially backlit), and the stone look best wet in the rain (like they look as the tide goes out). They get shinier and the colours show better. So not infrequently, they buy one of each. Now that's covering all the bases!

Visit my website, and frequently, to see all the new stock: Coast Chimes

Or, if you are around Gibsons, BC, please feel most welcome to drop in to my gallery. I love showing off my work in person, and showing some of my process: Visit Coast Chimes

e-Bike Turbo Vado, Off to the Post Office, Coast Chimes

Off to the Post Office

It's lovely living on a steep hill overlooking the ocean, until it comes time to ride a bike, or even walk! Especially on a hot day, like today. If it were not for my e-bike, I would definitely be loading up the car and driving.

It feels great to spare the globe a little in the CO2 department, to get some fresh air, a little exercise (yes, it is still some work, even on an e-bike!). But this bike is fully loaded, there is no doubt! I am so happy to have made the decision to invest in really great panniers. These Arkel Orca 45's certainly do the trick.

Now off to the post office. These Coast Chimes customers do not want to wait any longer than they have to!

Beach Stone Art

A Wonderful Secluded Feeling Beach,
Gibsons, BC, Canada
Perfect for Collecting a Few Beach Stones

It is such a joy to ride my new e-Bike, I have taken to exploring and discovering places not that far from home that amaze me. I had no idea! After living on the Sunshine Coast for nearly 30 years, how could all these jewels never been visited? I guess I never looked.

Best of all, especially one new beach is rich in just the type of beach stone I need for my work. Often I have spent hours just to find a few stones suitable to use as clappers, or strikers, for my large copper wind chimes. Well, this beach has a lot of them. What a treat!

The beach is down an extremely steep hill that normally would be challenging just to walk up, and I don't know if anyone could ride a bike up it. But it happily does not faze my new Specialized Turbo Vado, even loaded down with 30 pounds of stones. My Arkel Orca 45 panniers are certainly more than up to the task, as well: exceptional quality.

So happy exploring, happy beach combing days are here!

Natural Beach Stone and Cobalt Blue Glass
Wind Chime
by Coast Chimes