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silverware windchime

16 years ago

I saw these at an craft festival and decided to try my hand at making them. It was surprisingly easy to do so! And the spoons make a really nice sound when a breeze hits them. This one and one other are going to be christmas gifts and then I'll make one for my own garden.

{{gwi:199746}}

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Comments (12)

susiesunshine
16 years ago
Cool!!!! I love it//// how did you drill the holes in the spoons.....
I bet it sounds cool toooo!!!
I would like to try this... did you use fishing line to tie on???
M E R R Y + C H R I S T M A S !!!!
susiesunshine
KaraLynn
Original Author
16 years ago
I used an electric drill with a real small bit to drill the holes. To tie everything together I used the fine wire and small clamping beeds that are used for making necklaces. I didn't want to use fishing line because it tends to get brittle with age.
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Thanks for the compliments, Ya'll :D I make the wind chimes by pounding silver-plated spoons and forks flat. You don't have to flatten them if you don't want to, they still make a beautiful sound. I drill the holes in the handles, and either use a small silver plated coaster or tray and drill holes in that to hang the utensils from, or I use 2 silver plated forks and curl the tines of them, and wire them together, to hang the utensils from the curled tines. I use beading wire and crimping beads to hang them up, and a glass pendant to hang from the center. Boy, I hope that makes sense, I'm on my first cup of coffee :D For the spoon bracelets and spoon pendants, I cut them with a small bolt cutter, this is one of my favorite tools...it cuts nice and smooth, that's how they got the spoon bowls cut like that. I use 2 pair of pliers to bend the spoon handle for bracelets. For spoon bowl pendants, I leave a small piece of the handle to curl under to hang it with, if that isn't possible, I'll drill a hole to attach a jump ring to hang it with. I add little things, pictures, words, beads, dried flowers,glitter....and I use Clear-Cast resin. I buy it at Michaels, and you can use a coupon to buy it. It costs about $20 regular price, and you only need a small amount to fill a lot of spoons or bottle caps. I hope this helps! Kudzu/Cherry Here is a link that might be useful: Kudzu's Blog
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countrygrl
16 years ago
Are you my Secret Santa??!! You better get that it in the mail to me real soon! Very Cool! I always wanted to make one, but I thought hammering them flat would be too hard. Did you flatten yours?
garden2garden
16 years ago
I have one just like that I got years ago. It's my favorite windchime sound. You did a nice job on yours.
KaraLynn
Original Author
16 years ago
countrygrl, the regular spoons and tea spoons are real easy to hammer flat. I put the spoons on a board and then used a short handled hammer with a wide head. You just have to flip them a few times to get them perfectly flat. Soup spoons are a bit harder to flatten though. To shape the fork I used a bench mounted clamp/brace (can't think of the right name) to get the tines pointing in the different directions and then used needle nosed pliers to shape them. I flattened the spoons and shaped the fork all in one evening while I was watching TV.
cindee11461
16 years ago
I made a few of these a couple years ago. They are really nice. Not to hard to make either(-: Heres what mine looks like...
{{gwi:199748}}
kudzukween
16 years ago
vise! hehe........wish I had one! I used titanium drill bits,but I did manage to break them after about 8-10 holes I drilled:) I love how you made it,and the wire is a great idea,because yes,my windchimes of fishing line have broken.Cindee,I love the addition of beads, I like my sparklies:)Both very pretty!
mjowest
16 years ago
That is so cool!

Has anyone ever had success with a silverware wind chime "without" drilling holes? Maybe fastening wire around the ends???

ok , I admit it, I'm scared of the drill...

mj
joannegreco
16 years ago
Thanks for the great idea. I just posted some pictures of things I made with my mom's stuff and I'm going to try this also. :-)

Joanne
sherril_2008
16 years ago
I make these also, and use my husbands large vise and just clamp them into the vise and crank it until they are flat. This works pretty well!
kat4kittens2002
16 years ago
why do the spoons need to be flat?
KaraLynn
Original Author
16 years ago
The spoons don't have to be flat but they move better in the wind and sound nicer when they are.

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