Research and Development, Coast Chimes

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Cobalt Blue Glass with Aged Brass Chimes

Now with vastly improved sound.

Visit the 'Under $75' page of my website by clicking here.

You would think after fourteen years of making wind chimes, my research and development would be pretty much history. Not at all.

About a month ago I made several significant changes to the large copper chime section of my big wind chimes. This resulted in a more elegant look, improved sound, and less soldering.

For many years I have struggled with the small chimes on my suncatchers. Originally I used massed produced aluminum chimes, but I did not like using something mass produced, and I did not like the aluminum. I then spent many hours thinking about and experimenting with small diameter copper, with mixed results. I went back and forth between copper and aluminum, and was never satisfied.

At last I determined that I simply could not tolerate the aluminum chimes with my beautiful copper and glass. For a short while I thought I had a solution, which was simply taking enormous care crafting the mini-copper chimes, and getting my son to tie them onto my handcrafted copper hangers with heavy nylon line. Sadly, the line tended not to hold up, and that obviously would not do. Back to the drawing board.

Next I decided to use kidney ear wires to attach the chimes to my hangers. They looked wonderful, and they were clearly on for life. The one snag was that the sound was not very good, but I rationalized this, thinking three chimes in a row are never going to make much sound, anyway. I was not happy, but I thought they were good enough. I went for looks and durability above sound.

I got a wake up call when some drop-in customers came with a young boy. The boy was hopping around playing with all my work, and he was commenting as he went. Several times he made a comment about not much sound from the mini chimes. Children are so honest!

So I determined to slay this monster once and for all — back to research and development. I bought a lot of different types of materials, and decided to work on this until I was 100% satisfied. That's what my customers deserve, and that is what I expect of myself, too.

I am pleased to say that I have finally found the perfect solution. My new system to attach the mini-chimes is very strong, and the resonance is as good or better than with just plain nylon. Win, win.

Coverflow Page on Coast Chimes

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Coverflow presentation of my 15 most recent works.

Visit the Coverflow Page on my website.

Always having my eyes open for ways to improve my website, the Varsis Studio Coverflow plugin for RapidWeaver web design software caught my eye several months ago. But it was not until a new website project came along ( Click Modular ~ innovative modular homes), that I found I could justify the expense-- reasonable as it may be at $14.99.

Since the Click site was really basic, being mostly images, I thought this would add a little intrigue to the site. A way to present pictures without producing yawns.

It's neat, because you can navigate several different ways, and also you can click on the middle image and open a Shadowbox show. Pretty cool.

Now I put the same Coverflow style of page on my own website. I have it linked through a Flickr account, and I plan to upload all my most recent works to that Flickr account. This will thus be a gallery of my 15 most recent works.

Blue, Beautiful Blue

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All Glass and Copper

Cobalt Blue Glass

With Aged Copper Chimes

Wind Chime

I'm particularly proud of the two blue glass wind chimes I just completed.

Blue glass is the most challenging to work with, as it tends to fracture and is difficult to form into pleasant shapes, and even tricky to drill the holes in it. When I have a really nice piece, I pretty much hold my breath when drilling!

I figured it was well worth taking extra trouble for the entire wind chime, and used a glass roundel for suspending the chimes. This means that the chime is entirely glass and copper: nothing to wear out or require refinishing. I also treated the brushed copper chimes to antique them, as I think this color really compliments the dark blue glass nicely.

You can view the other all blue wind chime, and get more details on the one pictured above, by visiting the Gallery Page on my website.

Large Freestanding Double Wind Chime

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Driftwood with Double Chimes

Freestanding Wind Chime

My large works do not fly out the door, as they are pretty expensive. The one pictured above features a massive Pacific driftwood base, copper intertwined flowing supports, beautiful glass and two sets of copper chimes. It sold yesterday.

I used to be really happy when one of my large works sold. I still am, but that initial thrill is now overshadowed with dread: these are a chore to pack for shipping!

It used to be even more work to ship something like this. I used to actually cut plywood and build a special box for the copper support. Now I just use big sheets of cardboard, lots of tape, and shipping paper. Those poor collectors who received their order in a big plywood box probably did not appreciate having to dispose of the packing materials.

I have a page dedicated to large works and there are still two available on my website. They are really nice on a sundeck, or out in the garden. They can also be used indoors, in a home or an office, as kinetic art.

Colorful Wind Chime

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Colorful glass, beach glass inspired art wind chime.

Visit the Gallery Page of my website for more information.

For fourteen years I have been limited in colors to primarily greens, browns, blues and yellows for my glass. But a couple of weeks ago a friend dropped by some really stunning glass. The result is seen above: a radical deviation from my usual.

People frequently ask if I can't make something red, or purple. Since I don't usually have glass in those colors, several years ago I started making double-sided reverse painted wind chimes and mixed media wind chimes, where I try to put in lots of reds and purples. Purple and red, yes, but a far cry from the glass above.

This is the first time I actually have really bright colors in a beach glass inspired wind chime. Something different.

Wind Chime, New Design

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New design!

Beach glass inspired wind chime with a large copper hoop.

For more information, visit Coast Chimes

Often new ideas are triggered by customers asking for something. A customer wanted my very large, heavy iron chimes with one piece of glass. I didn't like that idea very much, because first the look would have been unbalanced (bottom heavy), and second, even my thickest glass might have been challenged by the weight of those big chimes.

So I thought about it overnight, and in the morning I had a solution that pleased the customer, and me. I decided to make a large copper hoop. I put the glass in the hoop, and the hoop supported the weight of the chimes. This solved the weight problem, and also made for a much more balanced looking wind chime.

After I made the special order, I liked the look so much I decided to make another one. This time I put two nice pieces of glass inside the hoop, and used my copper chimes. Above, you can see the result. I like it. Be sure to click on the picture to see it much larger.

Wind Chime, Beach Glass Inspired, Blue and Green

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Wind Chime

Beach Glass Inspired

Blue and Green with

Copper Chimes

Visit my Coast Chimes Website to learn more.

It's been remarkably busy. Remarkable, I say, because of all the details about the rotten economy on the news every five minutes. My wind chimes are not cheap, but people still seem to recognize that there is value in quality, and they are willing to pay a little extra for something unique, well made, and beautiful.

I finally got time to make a few specialized kaleidoscope style wind chimes. I almost always have some with mixed colors in stock, but often run out of those with select colors. This week I put together two with blue and green glass, a mix I find very refreshing on these hot days. I also put together two with what I call earth colors, which is a mix without any blue.

I find I am spending even more time making each chime. I have always paid close attention to every detail, but now I see more details. After nearly fifteen years of making wind chimes, the eyes get pretty sharp. It's important to me to do everything the best that I can. The funny thing is, as I become more and more of a perfectionist in regards to my work, I have less tolerance for the sloppy work of others. There is too much poorly designed, poorly made stuff. In fact, it is hard to find something that is well designed and well made. That's just not in the cards these days. No wonder people appreciate my work!

Wind Chime, Mixed Media

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Beach Glass Inspired Wind Chime

with Colorful Marbles

Visit my website for more information, or to buy.

I ran out of my mixed media colorful wind chimes about a month ago. It turns out to be not so easy to track down really nice, colorful marbles.

I'd had a local source before, but that was gone. I was hesitant to buy marbles online, as it is hard to know how good they are without holding them up to the light. I did finally get some, and they are gorgeous! The colors are lovely, and they are a little smaller than those I have used in the past, which is great since that means I can set my glass plate closer together, which lets more light through.

I buy online whenever possible, and I find I do so more and more often. Since I sell almost all my work online, it just makes sense to support the online community. Almost always the service I receive astounds me. It certainly is not only me who works very hard to give great service.

Wind Chime, Hammered Copper

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Copper Lover's Delight

Hammered Copper Wind Chime

With Five Copper Chimes

Visit my website for more information (Click Here)

The idea for this hammered copper wind chime came to me the other night as I was dozing off. This is often the case for my inspiration. I usually plan out what I am going to do the next day, and if there is nothing too urgent then I try to dream up some new ideas.

It would not be much fun to just make the same thing day in and day out. So I'm pleased that even after fourteen years I still have flashes of inspiration.

I really love this all copper wind chime. It looks elegant, beautiful, and unusual. It looks like quality, and it is.

Wind Chime Sale!

Beach Glass Inspired

Sculpted Cedar Wind Chime

Five Copper Chimes - Beach Stone Clapper

(Click on the picture to see it larger.)

On Sale for $137 (reg. $177.50) including postage (USA / Canada)

Click Here for more information or to buy.

I rarely place my sculpted red cedar style of wind chime on sale, as they are very labor intensive to make. But I decided to put one on sale this week. It's beautiful!

There are lots of beautiful wind chimes (and other works for the home, yard, garden and office) on my website. It's worth visiting and looking around. You are sure to see things you have never seen before, as all my designs are original, unique and, of course, very well made.

Celebrate spring with a stunning art wind chime, or surprise a friend with a special gift. I am happy to include a gift card with a personal message.

Suncatcher, Beach Glass Inspired

Suncatcher, beach glass inspired stained glass hanging. So pretty! So well made!

Visit my website 'Under $100' page to learn more, or to buy it.

What a shock. I expected things to get a little busier with spring in the air, but it suddenly got crazy busy. In fact, I don't believe I have ever had a week with so many sales.

Of course, it happened just after I accepted a large wholesale order. I promised the store that I could have everything made and shipped by next Monday, at the latest, and then someone opened the flood gate on orders. Even the pre-Christmas rushes in the past have never been this busy. Go figure.

So I pack and ship and pack and ship, and in between I try to get out and make something for the wholesale order. I could use a few more hours in the day, right now. Up at 5:00 AM and working right through until it's time to cook dinner. No complaints, I'm thrilled to have this success.

Peanut Butter Pie, Blog

Peanut Butter Pie Blog

I've had the pleasure of several bloggers emailing to ask if they could feature something of mine in their blog (Yes! Thank You!), but I don't recall anyone going to so much trouble and care as Tami over at her PeanutButterPie blog. She's really gone out of her way to do a fabulous job.

She first wrote about two weeks ago, and later sent some questions for me to answer. She then put together a long posting with lots of nice pictures.

Her hard work shows, so check out her blog and see what a nice job she has done. Thank you Tami!

Wholesale Wind Chimes, Price Reduced

Beach Glass Inspired

Kaleidoscope Wind Chime

Wholesale packages available.

A popular style of my handcrafted glass and copper wind chimes. Visit my wholesale page by Clicking Here.

Due to the Canadian Dollar being so much stronger against the US dollar than it was a few months ago, I have been able to reduce the price of many of my works. Today I also reduced the price of my wholesale packages. So while pretty much everywhere you look, prices go up and up, my wind chimes are becoming more affordable. Nice!

Entering my fourteenth year of making suncatchers, wind chimes and other works for the home and garden, I am happy to report that the quality, always high, is higher than ever. I am always on the lookout for ways to improve, and seldom does a week go by without my thinking of some way to tweak my designs. Lower prices, improved designs!

I've also just dropped the price for many of my wind chimes for the casual shopper, too. As always, free shipping, and free cold forged copper earrings with every purchase. Enjoy.

Apple iPod Touch Review: e-Book Reader and More

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Apple iPod Touch: Awesome

After dreaming of owning an e-book reader for several months, I finally snagged an Apple iPod Touch a couple of weeks ago when they went on sale.

When thinking of an e-book reader, an iPod Touch is probably not what comes to most people’s mind. But having researched readers extensively on the web, I was impressed by how many favorable reviews I came across.

I chose the Touch instead of a Kindle because the Kindle is not available in Canada, I find it unattractive (ugly), and it is too big for my pocket— I might as well drag along a book.

I couldn’t be happier with my choice.

While there are several book reader apps available for the Touch (including Kindle), Stanza (free) is the one I have so far been using. It’s wonderful! With the touch of a finger you can change the size of the font, colors, background, and all sorts of other stuff to make the page look just right for you, and for the current light conditions. There are a ton of classics available for free, and some contemporary works too. Connected via WiFi, it takes just a couple of seconds to download any book.

While I had been skeptical that the small screen size would provide a good reading experience, the sharp screen means the letters are very clear, so you can use a small font, and, besides, simply touching the side of the screen turns the page— not exactly onerous. The iPod Touch is a far better book reader than I ever imagined it would be. It remembers your place in a book, and just takes a second to turn on, so the upshot is I have been doing a lot more reading.

Stanza on the iPod Touch. Click the image to see it larger.

Bonus: I got the Touch to use as a book reader, but it turns out that I am using it for far, far more.

I had no idea of all the cool stuff you could do with an iPod Touch. There are about 30,000 apps available. Granted, the majority of those are games, which hold no interest at all for me, but there are also many that I have found very useful. Here are a few of my favorites.

Email. Being a compulsive email checker, the Touch is saving me tons of time and energy. I used to wake my computer far too often to check. Now I pick them all up on my iPod, where ever I am, even all the way out in my workshop.

Internet Browsing. The Touch comes with Safari, and again I find the small screen oddly non-bothersome. You just pull your fingers across the screen, which expands any website for easy reading. And with an app called Instapaper (free), you can save web pages to the iPod to read later when not connected to the internet.

News and articles. Being something of a news junkie, I am thrilled at the numerous apps dedicated to various news services and magazines. My favorites (so far) are the Huffington Post, Maclean’s, and the Globe and Mail (all free). You can update these before leaving home and then enjoy catching up even out of a WiFi zone.

Skype. I’ve used Skype for several years on my home computer. It turns out it works even better on the Touch. (I am guessing this is because of no interference from whirling hard drives etc.?). To use it on the Touch, you need to buy earphones with a mic— about $30 from Apple.

There are around a dozen other apps I use frequently. Everything from movie reviews and trailers (Flixster) to shopping lists (ShopShop).

Aside from all those cool apps, after a several year hiatus the iPod Touch is turning me back onto music. There are many fabulous podcasts (free), for example I have become quite addicted to the NPR Live Concert series.

Also, I have found that I can borrow audio library books online~ pretty sweet!

One final real benefit of the iPod Touch. I love watching films, however I do not like going to the video store, especially to return videos. For quite a while I have been renting videos online. Previously this meant lugging my iMac downstairs and watching on its barely adequate 20 inch screen. Now I just transfer them over to my iPod and plug it into our large tv (requires an adopter). The picture quality, by the way, is great.

My iPod Touch? One word: Awesome.

Suncatcher, Beach Glass inspired, Hanging

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Suncatcher, Beach Glass Inspired Window Hanging

Visit my website for more information, or to buy.

It's been busy. Putting together a fairly large wholesale order always takes more time and work than I anticipate. The thing is, while I put together something like that, I also build some stock for my website.

For example, the wholesale order included two hanging suncatchers. While I was building those, I built another three for my website, too. In the end, that's a more efficient way of doing things. They all came out really well, as you can see from the one pictured above. You can view the three extras on my website right now.

I feel lucky today. My son came home from University the other day, and asked if he could take my car to drive to Kamloops, BC, to visit a friend of his. How funny. I had just been getting into some serious head scratching over how to ship my huge driftwood birdbath to the customer. Well, she lives in Kamloops! This works for everyone. I can ship pain-free, my son gets his gas paid for, and the customer gets her birdbath express delivered to her doorstep. Sometime things just work out.

Suncatcher Chime Fancy, Inspiration

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Suncatcher Chime, beach glass inspired, cold forged

hammered copper diamond connectors. Three handcrafted copper chimes.

To learn more, or to purchase, visit the website by Click Here.

After all these years of making suncatchers, I still come up with new ideas. Having left over heavy copper sheeting from the patching I had to do on the hammered copper sink for the birdbath I made, it occurred to me that I could use this to make some neat new decoration on my suncatchers and wind chimes. Above, the results: the hammered cold forged copper diamonds between the glass pieces.

Inspiration is a funny thing. I find it has to come to me, that I can not go to it. It comes in a flash, from (as far as I can tell) nowhere. It seems most often to be triggered by materials: a piece of stone on the beach, a stick, a scrap of metal. Sometimes, it comes from a question someone asked (i.e, 'can you make a birdbath?'). Where ever, and what ever, I feel grateful that I do get ideas, and that often those ideas do seem to work out.

Wind Chime, Freestanding, Beach Stone and Copper

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Wind chime, Freestanding

Natural Pacific Beach Stone with Copper

for more information, or to purchase, Click Here

I have a passion for beautiful smooth rounded beach stones, and for copper. So it is only natural that I love creating freestanding wind chimes from these materials. I just finished making the one pictured above, and consider it a real success. It's an organic, lovely piece.

The only problem with these is that they are large, and heavy. That's a problem because I not only make them, but I ship them; trust me, they are not so much fun to pack and the postage is not so much fun to pay.

Whenever I get a notice that one sold, first my heart soars with the thrill of another sale, and then sinks with the realization of the task ahead. But over the years I have perfected the art of packing these, and it's not all that bad anymore. Bad, but not that bad.

And from the enthusiastic emails customers send after receiving this style, the effort is worth it.

Bird Feeder Art Wind Chime Makeover

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Deluxe Bird Feeder Wind Chime

Delicious

I've made a lot of deluxe art bird feeder wind chimes over the years. They are without a doubt one of the most labor intensive creations I make. So many precision saw cuts! About a year ago, when I made several, I thought that I had perfected the design beyond further improvement. Wrong.

I'm not sure that the room for improvement ever completely vanishes. While the look is almost the same, this latest design incorporates several significant enhancements.

For example, instead of resting on top, the cover now actually fits over the feeder. This is not only more secure, but also more water tight, and more attractive. The perches are a little longer, and I am sure the birds will be sending plenty of thank you notes for that one. Also, the seed bin is larger. So my 'perfect' design got a considerable makeover, and is that much closer to actually being perfect.

You can find the feeder for sale on my website, right here: Feeder

It is also available with impressive iron chimes, right here: Feeder Iron Chimes

You can also buy this amazing feeder without any chimes at all, if you like. Just scroll down the website page, and there is that option on the PayPal submit form.

Another Birdbath

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Above, reflection in the bath. Look at that beautiful old copper!

Below, the medium-size birdbath.

My last posting showing the large driftwood birdbath drew a number of enthusiastic comments. So I though I would go ahead and post a couple of pictures of my other birdbath creation.

I like them both, but if I had to choose I would pick the great big old fellow. This smaller one is neat, though, in that there is a big stainless steel threaded fitting up into the wood, and then right through a big natural beach stone. It's bolted to the stone. So you just bury the stone in your garden, and that's a nice stable bath.

The big root bath is now featured on the special order page of my website.

And that reminds me! I just invested in a sparkling new template for my website, and after working many hours I've now uploaded everything. New, and hopefully improved. You probably will not notice too much difference in appearance, but things should work even more smoothly. Why not check it out? Besides, I lowered a bunch of prices!

Birdbath

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Pacific Root Driftwood
With a Large Old Copper Sink
Birdbath

I mentioned a while back that I was working on a birdbath, as a potential custom order. I'd never made one before-- the idea had never even occurred to me. And when a customer asked if I could make a birdbath, my initial thought was to say no. However, I suddenly remembered a big old pounded copper sink someone had given me last summer, and realized that maybe this could be the bath.

Driftwood is always a passion of mine, and so that aspect of the bath was a natural. It was not so simple or quick to find the piece of wood that matched my plans. Then, all the technical aspects of fitting the bath into the wood, and securing the wood to the earth.

I'm happy with the results, though. Perhaps I will be adding birdbaths to my lineup of home and garden designs. In the meantime, check out my website for all the neat things I already offer. You can always visit my Special Order page, too, to read about requesting something different.

The night after taking the photographs above, it snowed. So here is a fun image of the same feeder snow covered.