Packing and Shipping Headaches

Very Large Freestanding Double Wind Chime
by Coast Chimes

I used to make quite a few of these extra-large wind chime with beach stone bases: they are really beautiful! But shipping them is not a lot of fun! The beach stone base on the one pictures weighs over 33 pounds. The copper support is over 4 feet tall. The 2 glass strands are somewhat fragile. Packing this to ship is, in one word, nightmarish.

I have taken apart a shipped a fair number of these, and have thus learned some tricks to simplify the process. Even so, ugh! Yesterday when I packed it, I still made some novice mistakes. For example, I spent a long time cutting out 2 pieces of thick cardboard to seal the copper support, and then wrapped that completely in heavy paper. So far, so good, but I forgot I should have measured it before neatly wrapping it in shipping paper. When I measured it, I found it to be oversized, meaning the postage, just on this one part, would have been nearly $300! So I had to get my sharp knife and carve up my neat package, and use a lot more tape and time. In the end, I succeeded, getting it down to a size where it could ship as a normal parcel ($55), but tons of extra work, and a package that did not look quite as neat as I would have like.

Second mistake was wrapping the glass, chimes and copper support, before weighing the beach stone base! It could easily have been overweight, making the whole process a waste. How lucky that the stone came in below the maximum, and thus shippable (for almost $100). 

To top off the whole hassle, the buyer of this wind chime discovered it through Etsy's new offsite ads, so they charged me over $80 extra. I am happy the ads work, but wow, that's a pretty hefty fee! (That's on top of the usual seller / listing fees).

Oh well, it's shipped off now, I hope that it arrives in great condition, I hope the customer loves it. Probably in a few weeks I will get the itch to make some more of this style. Pain is quickly forgotten?

Large Wind Chimes

Double Freestanding Wind Chime
Beach Stone Base
at Coast Chimes

It is a joy to make some larger works. I used to make more of them, but shipping such things is not as much fun as making them! So the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl provides a chance to make some, since people come to my studio and I do not have to carefully box them up and pay the postage.

I did still put the above gorgeous chime on my website and Etsy-- it's okay to occasionally ship such things, just not too often!

I made six different styles for the Art Crawl. It will be interesting to see how many I have left after. If I do have a few, that is actually just fine with me, as I love them in my own yard.

Outdoor Art, Try a Freestanding Wind Chime

Freestanding Glass and Copper Wind Chime
Beach Stone Base
Available at Coast Chimes

Freestanding chimes with a beach stone base are so cool! Put them anywhere: on your porch, your deck, your lawn, or in a garden with a bit of mulch pushed up around the stone.

The artist-made sea glass is smooth with a mat finish, and skillfully copper wire wrapped.

The chimes are cut from raw brass, polished, treated with a reactive (will not peel or flake) to produce such a nice finish, and then strung on a handmade copper hanger with nylon coated stainless steel, and sterling silver crimps. Made to last! Soothing sound.

The flowing copper support is embedded right into the beach stone. The beach stone is naturally beautiful: smooth and rounded.

See the entire selection of freestanding wind chimes at Coast Chimes.

Double Freestanding Wind Chime
Available at Coast Chimes

Wind Chime Freestanding Beach Stone Base

Freestanding Wind Chime, Beach Stone Base
Find it Here:  Coast Chimes

I love beach stones! The look (smooth, rounded, and even prettier when wet from rain), and the excuse they provide for me to go for a hike along the shore, beach combing.

They make an exceptional base for my freestanding chimes. The 1/4 inch diameter copper tubing is inserted right into the beach stone.

The artist-made sea glass is gorgeous: mat finish with smooth edges. Outstanding colors: amazing what old bottles can become! Upcycled glass, so you can rest easy that you are not contributing to the global crisis of materials being briefly used and ending up in a landfill: this has been rescued from the landfill!

Built to last, with durable second only to beauty. This chime is very happy outdoors all year long, any climate.

Although it is heavy and expensive to ship, as with all my creations I offer free, fast, expert shipping to the USA and Canada.

Visit my website to see all my amazing works: Coast Chimes

Freestanding Naturally Awesome Wind Chimes by Coast Chimes

Freestanding Double Wind Chime
Handcrafted by
Coast Chimes

I love freestanding wind chimes. They look great on a deck, or a porch, but best of all, in my opinion, is in your garden with a bit of mulch piled up around the natural beach stone base.

These are gorgeous, and the chimes are not annoying (ie, not horribly loud). The chimes are handmade from brass, treated with a reactive to be nice and dark instead of gaudy yellow, and suspended from handcrafted copper hangers with 49 strand nylon coated stainless steel, with sterling silver crimps (no rusting).

These freestanding wind chimes are completely happy outdoors all year round: snow, rain, wind, sun, nothing is going to bother this chime.

See all my wind chimes by visiting my website: Coast Chimes. Enjoy $10 shipping to anywhere in the USA or Canada.

Awesome Garden Decor: Freestanding Suncatcher Wind Chime

Freestanding Suncatcher Wind Chime
Beach Stone Base
See it at Coast Chimes

This freestanding wind chime is brilliant. The beach stone base fits anywhere, but looks especially wonderful partially buried in mulch. It is also suitable for rock gardens. Many enjoy this style on their patio or sundeck, as well. Versatile, and a high degree of cool factor.

The glass is artist-made sea glass. The chimes are hand cut brass, 7, 6, 5 inches long, and attached to the handcrafted hanger with nylon coated stainless steel via sterling silver crimps. This is made to provide years of pleasure.

Visit Coast Chimes to see all the awesome designs.

New Wind Chimes, Freestanding

Freestanding Double Wind Chime
Natural Pacific Beach Stone Base
Glass and Copper
Find it at Coast Chimes

Even after over 20 years of making unique high-quality creations for the home and garden, it amazes me what I come up with. Look at this wind chime!

I love using natural materials, and beach stones are right at the top of the list. They make such an excellent base for freestanding wind chimes. The only drawback is that they are obviously very heavy for shipping-- but that is not much of a problem for my customer, since I pay most of the postage (all my works ship for a flat $10 charge to the customer, even when the actual postage is closer to $100).

This type of wind chime is ideal for placing on a deck or patio, or, even better, bury the stone part way in your rock garden. So beautiful! It is not bothered at all by snow, rain, sun or wind. Simply enjoy it!

Freestanding Wind Chime

Freestanding Double Wind Chime
Glass, Copper, Beach Stone

I always love it when customers from the past resurface. I had been putting off making any of my very large, heavy, freestanding double wind chimes since moving to our new house. They take a lot of energy and concentration to make, and they are truly a nightmare to pack and ship. However, I did have the idea in the back of my mind. My wife also wanted some for our small yard. But I would still be putting it off if a customer who got one years ago did not email out of the blue asking if I could make one for her. That got me going.

I'm very pleased with the result: probably the finest one that I have ever made. After I get it packed and shipped, and recover from the effort, I guess I will just have to go and make a few more!

Wind Chimes, Finding Inspiration from the Past

Wind Chime, Freestanding, Double, Beach Stone base
Available at Coast Chimes

I seldom to never run out of ideas. There is always something I am looking forward to making, or something that I have to make (like as I start to run out of copper chime sections!). However, one neat thing that I found is to look back over my old blog postings, or, more recently, to do a Google search of images, Coast Chimes. It has been about twenty years that I have been making wind chimes and suncatchers, and posting pictures on the internet, so any search leads to a trip down memory lane.

The other night I was lazily browsing through images on Google, and stumbled across some of the design posted above. I had almost forgotten about these! They were popular, and fun / challenging to make. So the next morning I could hardly wait to get down to my workshop and put one together. I happily had a suitable beach stone for the base, and the other materials were all at hand, too. So it was relatively quick and simple to assemble. Magic!

Now I just have to remember, the next time I go down to the beach, to keep my eyes open for more suitable beach stone base stones.

Freestanding Large Double Wind Chimes

Four new large double freestanding wind chimes

See them on my website, Coast Chimes, or on Etsy.

I enjoy the challenge of making large works, and only wish that Canada Post would allow even bigger items to ship. It is easy to get carried away and go beyond the maximum size or weight for shipping. How I would love to make a truly giant sculpture!

Well, these most recent works are pretty big. One of the beach stone bases is still downstairs cluttering up our living room, as I just have not felt like lugging it upstairs. At fifty pounds, it's an armful!

Although there are beaches here with many, many stones, it is surprisingly difficult to find a stone that works well as a base. If I wanted to cheat, I could take any nice large stone over to my friend's place, and have him cut the bottom off so it lies flat and stable. But I prefer to keep it all natural, so I search, and I search, and eventually I find an attractive stone that works.

Bending the copper is also tricky. I find this is one job where I truly have to be in an excellent frame of mind: relaxed, feeling good and confident. It's easy to kink the copper, or to end up with a mess.

As always with these large works, I offer free shipping to anywhere in the USA or Canada. I bet some of these will cost around $150 in postage, so that is quite a good deal. The postage is only a part of it, of course, as packing these tends to be a half a day job, at least.

Why not take a few minutes and check these out on my website's Large Works page, or on Etsy? Also, if you click on the picture above, you can see them a bit bigger.