Kaleidoscope Wind Chimes and Suncatchers by Coast Chimes

Freestanding Kaleidoscope Suncatcher
Perfect for a Sunny Windowsill
$95 free shipping at Coast Chimes

My kaleidoscope suncatchers and wind chimes are much loved: when the sunlight filters through the artist-made sea glass, you are treated to an awesome display of colour!

I make a lot of different styles, from freestanding and hanging suncatchers to small or large wind chimes. They are all great!

Check out my store to see them all: Coast Chimes

Framed Glass Suncatchers by Coast Chimes

Cedar Frames, Freshly Oiled
Ready for the Addition of Beautiful Glass

These wet, dark, cold days are perfect for tackling some long put off projects. Making cedar frames to fill with my glass is a great thing to tackle.

The end of January through much of April are the slowest days at Coast Chimes for orders, so there is less interruption for answering emails, packing, shipping, and I can concentrate on the somewhat more complex projects, demanding precision use of saws and so on.

I have to admit that I do not overly care for using saws and other power tools, due to the noise, the dust, the bit of danger (will never forget sawing the tip off my left thumb years ago!). But I do enjoy the end result.

I should have these three frames completed later next week, with luck, and then I'll photograph them and have them on my website (Coast Chimes) and in my Etsy store, as soon as there is a bit of sunlight for taking pictures. That might be the longest part! There are a lot of dark, wet days here currently-- sometimes it feels we may never see the sun again. But it will happen, and so will my pictures.

Eye-catching Suncatchers at Coast Chimes

Freestanding Kaleidoscope Sun Catcher
$95 at Coast Chimes, Free Shipping

The glass is loosely (you can shake it around) trapped between two plates of extra-thick glass in a well crafted cedar frame. When the sun shines through, you are treated to an amazing kaleidoscope of colour!

The cedar is treated with an exceptional eco-friendly hand rubbed finish that will never peel or flake.

This freestanding kaleidoscope suncatcher is great anywhere, but it looks especially nice on a sunny windowsill.

Find many different styles of suncatchers at Coast Chimes.

Good Summer Light for Picture Taking

Below are a few recent pictures of my works, taking advantage of pretty nice summer light. I took a bunch, and then realized that the awful shade of green netting over the background blueberry bushes was not working, at all! So I had to retake them all, once the netting was done.

I invest considerable effort trying to capture my work. It's really tricky, because the light changes the appearance of the glass so much. I do the best I can... and frequently redo!

Find all these gorgeous wind chimes (and many more!) at Coast Chimes.

Outdoor Art for an Outdoor Time of Year

Glass and Copper Art Wind Chime
by Coast Chimes

It's been busier than usual this spring and early summer, with many orders going out the door each week. The good news is that while a lot of time is used packing and shipping, even more time is being devoted to creating new, exciting works. So every week great large and small wind chimes, and suncatchers, are added to my website: Coast Chimes.

As per my usual summer schedule, I am sure to reserve an hour (or several!) for biking and hiking, sprawling on the local beaches, swimming, beach combing. Most days I find something on the beach to take home and incorporate into a new design. That keeps things fresh!

This is a great time of year to add something remarkable to your outdoor living space.

Freestanding Kaleidoscope Suncatcher from Coast Chimes

Freestanding Kaleidoscope Suncatcher
Perfect for your Sunny Windowsill
Find it at Coast Chimes

The freestanding kaleidoscope suncatchers are a very cool way to brighten up your indoor space. Fits neatly on your windowsill, and when the sun shine through the glass pieces you are treated to a kaleidoscope of color!

The artist-made sea glass pieces are loosely trapped between two plates of extra-thick glass, so you can shake them around.

The well crafted cedar box frame has been treated with an exceptional eco-friendly tung nut oil. Looks (and smells!) fantastic!

See all the freestanding suncatchers at Coast Chimes.

Modern Suncatcher: Artist-made Sea Glass with Driftwood

Framed Artist-made Sea Glass with Natural Driftwood
Coast Chimes

I love this framed glass piece. It took me a long time to find just the right piece of driftwood wood, but it all came together very nicely in the end.

Almost all of the works in my studio gallery are photographed and available on my website, and Etsy, but a few I hold back, including this one. I am reserving some of these for the fast approaching Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2017, October 20-22. A few others are just too big to ship. A few are just not ready for me to say goodbye to yet.

If this framed piece does not sell during the Art Crawl, I will probably put it on my websites, and say goodbye to it pretty fast, especially with the Christmas rush soon to start, the busiest time of year.

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Sea Glass Freestanding Kaleidoscope Suncatcher

Freestanding Kaleidoscope Suncatcher
Perfect for a Sunny Windowsill
$75 at Coast Chimes

My freestanding kaleidoscope suncatchers can really jazz up your sunny windowsill. When the sun shines through the artist-made sea glass, you are treated to a kaleidoscope of color!

The glass morsels are loosely trapped between 2 plates of extra-thick glass in a well crafted cedar box frame. The cedar has been treated with an exceptional eco-friendly tung nut oil finish that will never peel or flake.

See all the awesome suncatchers on the Coast Chimes Suncatcher pages. $10 expert shipping to anywhere in the USA or Canada.

Freestanding Sea Glass Inspired Kaleidoscope Suncatcher

Freestanding Kaleidoscope Suncatcher
$95 at Coast Chimes

This freestanding kaleidoscope suncatcher is perfect for a sunny windowsill. When the sunlight passes through the small pieces of glass, it comes alive with beauty! The artist-made sea glass is loosely trapped between 2 plates of extra-thick glass in a well crafted red cedar box frame.

Coast Chimes has many styles of suncatchers, with and without chimes. Visit those without chimes  in the Suncatcher Section of Coast Chimes.

For The Non-Wind Chime Person

Unique Glass and Copper Sun Catcher
Handcrafted
$75 with free shipping at Coast Chimes

Not everyone can own a wind chime. There are neighbourhood rules and condo rules that sometimes prohibit even small chimes with soft, pleasant sound like my smaller chimes.

That's okay. I make a great selection of sun catchers that look great outdoors all year round, any weather (so well made!), or inside by a sunny window. These are a wonderful choice if you are giving a gift, and you are not absolutely positive that the person is a fan of wind chimes. My advice, if you are not sure, is to not give a wind chime, as there are people who really do not appreciate them.

Of course, they usually got their aversion through a negative experience with those super loud aggressive aluminum chimes all too popular, and when they get a set of Coast Chimes they change their minds. So beautiful, and not annoying or terribly loud.

So Coast Chimes has you covered, even if you can't have or don't want a wind chime.

Against the Grain

With spring around the corner, these small beach glass inspired sun catchers seem like a nice way to celebrate. Something about them says 'spring.' I sell them in sets of five, three with chimes, two with copper spiral motifs. I have two sets on chime page of my website.

Being organized and neat is something that goes against my grain. I will never be organized and neat.

My environment is a mess.

But at times I do have to make a (for me) super human effort. For example, packing orders. I fully appreciate that when someone orders an art wind chime or sun catcher, their first impression will be the box and the packing. No matter how beautiful the work, something will be lost if it arrives in a tattered box with sloppy packing. I know that. And so I make an effort. I have to laugh each time the postal clerk complements me on my packaging, always telling me I have the best looking boxes of anyone she's seen. Believe me, that's not natural for me!

Another area I strive to be organized in is with all the different sites on which I have things listed. Ebay, Etsy, my own website, and several sites sometimes share the same works. So when something sells, I need to track down the other places where it is for sale, and remove it. This is oddly challenging for me. Just yesterday something sold on Etsy, and as soon as I saw the email my heart sank, as I was pretty sure this one was long gone. I'm human, I'm messy, and I make mistakes.

I strive to be organized, I strive to be neat, but it sure goes against my grain.

Special Orders are Okay, Sometimes

Pacific driftwood with copper and red cedar wind chime, beach stone clapper.

There is much wood on our local beaches. But to find the 'perfect' piece, especially for a special order, is not an easy task. Seeing the wood packed beach, you think it should take only a minute, but instead it can take hours.

Sometimes people are hesitant to ask about having me make small changes to a completed work, or about special orders. It never hurts to ask. That's why I put information about special orders on my website.

I've done many special order projects. I recall very well the first one, which was a long time ago. It won't be forgotten by me, because it was complex and difficult. The customer mailed a large tube with drawings of what he envisioned, and I did my best to follow his blueprints. It was a challenge!

Since then, there have been many special requests. The vast majority are simply small changes to an existing work, and I complete them without any additional charge. Some I can tell from the start are going to be a ton of work, and I need to charge accordingly.

Other special orders appear at first glance to be simple, but turn out to be a great deal of work. For example, one recent one was a nicely open ended request: a nice driftwood wind chime. There is an enormous amount of wood on the beaches here, especially at this time of year. So you would think finding a suitable piece would be easy. It's not. I wanted to find the perfect piece. You can never find the perfect piece~ especially if you are looking for it!

After four trips to different beaches and many long walks, I found a piece that I quite liked. Now, after drying it by the fire, and doing the work to turn it into a wind chime, I like it even more. It wasn't the 'perfect' piece when I found it, but now it is. I hope she likes it as much as I do.