New Works, Coast Chimes Wind Chimes

Cobalt Blue Glass, Natural Beach Stone Chime

$95 US incl. shipping, Coast Chimes

Detail, Blue Glass Beach Stones Wind Chime

Handcrafted Copper Hook

Managing to find some time to create new works these days. I find that very refreshing, energizing. It's so much fun to select nice glass pieces, natural beach combed materials, and to see what I come up with. It's still after all these years most often a big surprise how these simple materials come together to create stunning beauty.

You may visit my website to see all my wind chimes, from small antiqued brass chimes to very large natural driftwood beach stone works: Coast Chimes. Satisfaction is always guaranteed, along with free shipping to the USA or Canada.

 

Wind Chimes, Coast Chimes, New Works

Natural Driftwood and Beach Stone Zen Copper Wind Chime

$295 US at Coast Chimes, including shipping to the USA or Canada

February and early March are traditionally the slow period for wind chime sales, which is actually excellent. This provides a window or time for me to switch from packing and shipping to producing. So I am now able to devote a larger chunk of time each day to creating new works, and to photograph and place said works on my website. So any day you visit Coast Chimes, you will likely see some new amazing wind chimes, such as the stunning beachcomber's wind chime featuring driftwood, beach stones, and seven copper chimes pictured above. Or the charming beach stone cobalt blue chime pictured below.

Natural Beach Stones with Cobalt Blue Glass Chime

$87 US at Coast Chimes, including shipping to the USA or Canada

 

One-of-a-kind Handmade Quality Wind Chimes and Suncatchers

Simplicity is Beautiful
$55 with free shipping at Coast Chimes

At Coast Chimes, unique, fully handcrafted, wind chimes start at $55 with free shipping to the USA and Canada. The least expensive works are made with the same care to detail, high-quality materials, and assurance of long term enjoyment as the more expensive designs.

The chime featured above consist of artist-made sea glass, a most glorious cobalt blue, copper wire, handmade copper hook, 3 hand cut brass chimes antiqued with a reactive (not paint or powder coating, this finish will not flake or wear off). The chimes are attached to a handmade copper hanger with 21 strand nylon coated stainless steel wire, secured with sterling silver crimps (no rust!).

Simplicity is beautiful, and quality is a pleasure.

Why not give yourself, or someone you love, a very special little gift? Find what you need at Coast Chimes.

New Wind Chimes and Suncatches, Maximum Selection Right Now

Kaleidoscope Artist-made Sea Glass
Large Outdoor Wind Chime
Five Copper Chimes
$175 at Coast Chimes

This stunning kaleidoscope wind chime would be a welcome addition to any garden, yard, or patio. Some people even use it inside, as kinetic art. When the sun shines through the loose glass morsels, you are treated to a kaleidoscope of colour!

I am currently working hard making lots of new stock for the annual Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, October 20-22, 2017, and, yes, already for the fast approaching Christmas rush. This is a great time to visit my website, as it has the yearly maximum selection, before a big slump from stock cleared through art crawl sales, and then early Christmas shoppers.

My website can be found here: Coast Chimes

Outdoor Well Crafted Blue Glass and Antiqued Copper Wind Chimes

Cobalt Blue Glass with Antiqued Copper
$87 USD at Coast Chimes

Cobalt blue glass somehow just really goes perfectly with antiqued copper, as can be seen in the picture above. The glass looks awesome anytime, but really comes alive when the sunlight shines through from behind.

All the glass is artist-made beach glass, upcycled from old bottles. The copper is cut, brushed, treated with a reactive, steel wool brushed, hammered. The chimes are cut from brass and also treated with a reactive (a finish that will not peel or flake, but only look even better over time). These chimes are made to last, and may be enjoyed fully exposed to the elements all year long.

See all the Coast Chimes' wind chimes and suncatchers by clicking here: Coast Chimes

Large Glass and Copper Outdoor Wind Chimes

Color for Your Garden
$185 at Coast Chimes

It's hard to believe this beautiful glass comes from old bottles: talk about great upcycling! It truly is awesome glass, with smooth edges and a mat finish. It is artist-made beach glass.

And it is hard to beat copper for outdoor decor. This wind chime is all copper and glass, with the exception of the solid red cedar wood roundel from which the chimes are suspended, and the beach stone clapper. All the hardware is handmade from copper (hooks, hooklets, rings). Even the wire used for the beach stone clapper is copper. So nothing is going to rot or break: this chime is made to last!

Find lots more wind chimes from glass, beach stones, driftwood, starting for as low as $55,  at Coast Chimes.

New Beautiful Blue Glass and Copper Handcrafted Wind Chimes

Cobalt Blue Glass & Copper
$185 USD Coast Chimes

After 25 years, my glass continues to impress me by its beauty. To think, it all comes from bottles that were going to be thrown away or smashed!

Because my glass comes from bottles, I have a fairly limited colour palette. But those few colours I do have are all gorgeous, especially when the sunlight shines through from behind. When the early morning or late afternoon sunlight shines through the glass, I think of that as the glass coming alive: amazing!

The copper I use compliments the glass so well, too. I just can't imagine a better combination. Check out my website to see all the different wind chimes I make, and suncatchers, too: Coast Chimes
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Copper Handcrafted Outdoor Large Wind Chime

High Quality Genuine Copper Wind Chime
by Coast Chimes

At Coast Chimes, most of the wind chimes feature art on top of the chimes. But many people want a simple, very high-quality wind chime, without the art. Pictured above is the perfect solution.

The large copper chimes at Coast Chimes are completely handcrafted. The metal is cut, smoothed, double brushed, treated with a reactive (not paint: this finish will not peel or flake), and polished.

The hardware is all handmade. On the large copper chimes, the hardware is all copper: no fishing line or cotton to wear out and break. These chimes are made to be beautiful and also extremely durable.

The cedar roundel is solid wood: not laminated plywood as found on many mass produced wind chimes. The wood is treated with an wonderful tung nut oil, a finish which will also never flake or peel.

Copper is a soft metal, and it is a challenge to achieve a nice sound. Coast Chimes uses a beach stone clapper, or striker, to produce lovely, soothing sound.

Beautiful, durable, and wonderful sound: this is an awesome wind chime. Visit Coast Chimes to check out all the amazing wind chimes.

Hooks and Connections, Copper, Handcrafted

Click on the picture to see it larger

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.

Where There's a Will There's a Way

Click on the picture to see it largerCobalt blue beach glass inspired suncatcher with handmade copper chimes
For more information or to see other copper chimes, Click Here.

I'm a believer in that saying, 'where there's a will, there's a way.' The trouble is, it's easy to be lazy and not even try, specially when 'trying' takes a lot of effort.

For years I had access to inexpensive silver-colored chimes. I have sold a ton of suncatchers with those. But it always bothered me. The silver color struck me as out of synch with the copper. It was okay with the cobalt blue, but, I mean, my thing is copper! It also bothered me to use something no doubt mass produced in China. That's not my bag.

It was so easy! Just buy a bunch of the little chimes and have my son tie them onto my handmade copper hangers. Too easy; not good enough.

Several times I did take some initiative and cut my own chimes. First from stainless steel. Such hard metal! It was a real pain to cut and drill, and in the end they really were not much better looking than the cheap aluminum chimes. Then I tried copper tubing. Although I thought those looked pretty good, they didn't sound all that great.

I never really tried. Lazy.

The other day I finally gave this a lot of thought and arrived at what I hoped would be a solution. Where there is a will, there is a way!

Using small diameter rolled copper, I succeeded. A ton of work, but worth it! Here are the steps involved:

Cut the copper

Straighten it

Bore it with a drill

Re-straighten

Cut holes for hanging

Re-bore

Heat each chime to a very high temperature, and quickly submerge in ice water to harden the copper (so it can't bend easily, and primarily to produce a sharper, sweeter sound)

Double brush each chime

Polish each chime

Make the copper hangers

Wait for son to tie the chimes

Is it worth all that work? Yes.