Make a chandelier-style wind chime

Colored crystals make a sparkling garden wind chime

Flea market finds and unusual silver goblets combined with beads make an amazing garden chime to hang in a tree or from a pergola. Shea Ricci from near Rochester, New York, created this wind chime chandelier from odds and ends she found, including a set of a dozen very unique silver glasses.

All the materials used

She also collected several wire baskets in different sizes and colors. She says,“I’m always collecting these wire baskets and set them aside until I have the right base for the right project.”

Many wire baskets to choose from to make the top

“I decided to make swag lamps with the two brown baskets. Other baskets will just get beaded for the garden or elsewhere. A few will get silverware hung from them, ” Shea says.

Beads, jump rings, glue and string are the other supplies needed

Fun! Items to use as wind chime ‘clangers’

You may not be able to find metal goblets or glasses like Shea’s, but it will be fun to see what else can be used.:

Silverware
Keys
Washers
Bottle caps
Metal tubes
Sea shells or glass
Stained glass rectangles
Metal gears
Bamboo
Watch parts
Tiny glass bottles
Bells
Wrenches/tools

This basket was hung up to make the work easier

Shea says, “Putting the chandelier together after that was a one day project. I hung the upside down basket from an old mattress springs across the rafters on my screen porch as I worked.”

I used jewelry wire on which I strung beads and used jewelry crimps at the ends.”

Eight goblets around the edge, four in the center, all at different lengths

Jump ring detail

“I had intended to drill the bottoms of each metal goblet but even a tile bit wouldn’t go through so I switched gears and glued jump rings to the bottom.

Tip: You want to let the glued jump rings set for a couple days before moving on to the next part of the project.”

Bead detail

Shea says, “I formed a tripod at each bottom and ran a strand up from there so that each glass would swing freely. The beads are strung with larger plastic ones at the tops and then smaller beads for the glass ‘tripods’ near the goblets.”

The finished chandelier

“I’d never seen these metal silver plated champagne goblets before. They should make a fabulous sound when they hit together. I liked the first so well that I’m making a second smaller one,” Shea tells us. Can you imagine how this must sound?