Since I have decided to make a wind chime, I then moved on to actually designing the wind chime.

One of the first things that I did was to hop onto Pinterest for inspiration, where I found many different designs for wind chimes. After looking through some photos, I decided on several things:

First, I want my wind chime to be cylindrical. For clarification, there are many different wind chime designs that are very different from each other. For example, some wind chimes are made with the chimes tied to a piece of log in a straight line, while other wind chimes are made with the individual chimes tied in a circle underneath the top of the chime structure, hence the cylindrical shape.

A wind chime designed in a straight line. A cylindrical wind chime.

Next, I decided that I want my chimes to be arranged in a spiral pattern. It adds a flow of movement to the visual design, and altering the lengths of the chimes means that there will be more variation in the sound produced by the chimes.

I also decided that I want to have two layers to my wind chime, which means that there will be two knocker pieces and two sets of chimes. The heavier knocker piece would be at the bottom so that the weight distribution would still work, and I plan on attaching something to the knocker piece below in a classical wind chime “tail” fashion.

For the aesthetics of the wind chime, I decided on a midnight-blue plus gold accents color scheme. It’s one of my favorite color combinations, and I find it very visually appealing. I plan on painting the top piece, the knocker pieces and the wind chimes to make them blue – perhaps a midnight blue to cyan gradient? With bits of gold/white sprinkled in? If I have time, that is – and the string would provide the color contrast, as it is brown. Not quite gold, but the effect is still there. Additionally, I found that I really like the aesthetic of this particular type of string, so even if it doesn’t match the theme perfectly, I still want to use it.

I spent some time looking for materials that I can use on my wind chime, and listed them below:

  • A circular top piece, for the chimes to attach to (wood)
  • A smaller circle, for the top knocker piece (wood)
  • A slightly larger circle, for the bottom knocker piece (wood)
  • six pieces of cylindrical wood of equal length, for the upper chimes – they may not chime, but they add a different tone quality to contrast with the ringing of the bottom chimes! Originally I planned on using a solid metal stick, but decided against it as it would be difficult to drill holes through that, and it would mess with the weight distribution of the chime. I plan on painting the cyan half of the gradient here.
  • Six pieces of hollow metal tube of different length, for the bottom chimes. They make a very nice sound when rung, so I placed them at the bottom so that they have more space to move. I plan on painting the midnight blue half of the gradient here, as the metal tubes are already black.
  • six pieces of 17cm string, to hold the top chimes
  • six pieces of 10 cm string, to attach the bottom chimes to the top chimes.
  • One – or two piece(s) of long string (measurements undetermined) to attach the knocker pieces.
  • One ring-like object to connect the strings. This will also serve as a hook-able object so that the wind chime can be attached to ceilings on hooks.
  • Small beads to secure the string to the top piece so that they will not fall (hot glue will also suffice, but it looks worse)

I also have several additional decorations that I want to add to the wind chime, if I have time:

  • Decorations made from this really cool spool (?) of golden wire that I found
  • A couple of strange, transparent pieces of acrylic that I might be able to turn into mirrors if combined with aluminum foil
  • Perhaps paper stars? I have a lot of them at home and they would probably look really cool on a wind chime.

In order to make my wind chime, I would first need to learn how to use a drill, so that I can drill holes into the separate pieces for the string to go through. To learn this, I googled up a tutorial, and I plan on asking one of the Design teachers to help me drill some holes so that I can do it on my own.

My plan for the next few lessons is to spend around 2 sessions putting together the wind chime, and perhaps I can ask for feedback as I make the chime if I need to tweak my design. I plan on using the first session to cut out all of the materials I need as well as adding the string holes, so that if I’m behind schedule I can always take the pieces home and tie the string on in my own time. If I have extra time, I can add on the midnight-blue-to-cyan gradient with paint, and any remaining time would be dedicated to adding on extra decorations.

Below are my sketches and plans: