Making a Wind Chime

March ~ St Patrick's Day ~ Luck of the Irish

I mention these things, because many of Greg's family members have birthdays in March. This year we asked Mom (Mary Ann) what she'd like for her birthday. She said "deep sounding wind chimes." Greg looked online and went to some stores, but wasn't happy with the sound.

I'm married to the right man ~ instead of buying the gift, Greg is MAKING the wind chimes. Here's an email from Greg to his Mom on how he created the chimes:

"Off and on for the past 4 days, I've worked on the gift and I have to say that so far I'm very pleased with the way it is coming out. Everything is falling into place. I love that. There will be 6 tubes for the chimes and I am tuning it to A minor, which seems to be popular. I have an electronic guitar tuner and each tube is at perfect pitch because I am using a "continuous roll" pipe cutter. I am taking off 1/16 of an inch at a time until the pitch is perfect and you can actually hear the harmonic wave when the bells are struck. Its SO cool.

THEN, I needed a circular piece at the top for the strings to go through. Aleta and I were at the Big Orange and I came across the perfect piece. I couldn't believe it (seriously, he couldn't. Greg's eyes at the store were like a kids in candy land - too cute) It is a replacement flange repair kit for the base of a toilet believe it or not and it has SIX perfectly spaced holes in it as well AND it is Stainless Steel!!

THEN we were looking for a ringer (striker) that can hang in the middle and we came across a screw-in leg for home made furniture. It's called a "Bun Foot" like what you would put on the bottom of a dresser. I took out the threaded metal and replaced it with an eye hook for the string, then added another eyehook on the bottom for the wind catcher to be tied on. Now I need an idea for what to use as a wind catcher."

When Greg and I were at Home Depot, it was surprising to find the items and they seemed to fit the project perfectly. What's the saying? Everytime you hear a chime, another angel gets its wings.


Mom's response started with "WOW! I am so impressed with your creativeness." She wrote about ideas for a wind catcher and said that "a wide, light weight piece catches the wind better than a long, narrow piece." The discussion came up that the striker could be too heavy for the wind catcher to work. Mom ended her letter with, "Thank you SO much for all the effort you're putting into this. It means more to me than if you would have gone out and purchased one already made."


I think it's beautiful that Greg wanted to make the gift (I love how talented he is ~ just ONE of the ~many reasons I love him) and I think it's equally as beautiful that his Mom appreciates it so much!


For the wind chime aspect, Greg sent a response, that is... well, Greg. He always keeps me laughing, love that man!

Greg wrote: "I guess it also depends on how often you want to hear the chime. Do you want crazy lots of chiming? I don't think so, just a soft, deep, resonating, tantric, meditative, now and then reminder of how relaxing a sound can be. *sigh* Like smoking some good weed but without the bad taste in your mouth or the sense of paranoia LOL"