This is my final product! Or at least, for the time being. I will paint it in my own time, but for the purposes of the assessment and the project, the wind chime is complete.
These are the photos that I took of my wind chime! I also have a video of it in action:
This wind chime works by converting wind energy (kinetic) into sound energy. When the wind hits the chime, it causes the chimes to knock against the knocker pieces, as well as other chimes. This process converts the kinetic energy of the wind into the kinetic energy of the chimes, which are being swayed back and forth after being hit by the wind. When the chimes come into contact with one another, as well as the knocker pieces, their kinetic energy is converted to sound energy, which makes the chiming noises. During this process, there will likely be losses of energy as parts of the kinetic energy from the wind and chimes would convert into thermal energy when they hit other objects.
One area that I succeeded in was the create and improve section. Usually, things are a lot easier in your head, and this is no exception. I encountered many frustrations and obstacles during the process of physically making my wind chime, such as the problem of how to connect the string, and I’m really proud of how I managed to overcome these obstacles. I found the process of learning how to use a drill and saw, as well as how to find the radius and center point of a physical circle very engaging, and I had a lot of fun arranging the beads in different colors for the finishing touches on my wind chime. Overall, I would say that this is a successful project.
One way that this project could be better is if it was painted. I originally planned on painting a nice cyan-to-midnight-blue-to-black gradient on the chime, perhaps with some white or gold bits for accent colors, but ran out of time. However, I did manage to include that color scheme through the beads I added as finishing touches. I would also like to find a proper ribbon for the chime, as right now it is just a piece of light-blue paper taped onto the end of a string. Another thing is that I should have made the upper knocker larger, as the wood pieces barely get close enough together to make any wooden noises. A possible solution is to swap the upper and lower knocker pieces so that the wooden chimes could make some noise, and since the metal chimes have more space to move, they would still be able to chime as well. I am also slightly worried about the lifespan of the loop on the top of the chime, where you can hang it up on a hook. The loop is made from the same type of string that I used for the rest of the chime, and it might fray over time and break. I plan on perhaps putting some masking tape over the loop, so that it would not fray, and can still remain somewhat aesthetically pleasing – usually, people don’t look at the top part anyways.
I would consider this project to be made from very environmentally-friendly materials – it does not need batteries to recharge, and the wood and metal parts are very easy to come by. Even if there are no suitable metal pipes available, the pipes could be easily replaced with recyclable materials like bottle caps, bits of tin cans, and more. The string is also relatively environment-friendly, as it is made from a fiber-like-papery material and would likely be able to decompose if left out in the wild. The wind chime is easily customizable to fit the aesthetic tastes of the client and would make a nice addition to a front porch or bedroom. It is also a fairly quiet wind chime, and would not make any annoying noises that would prevent people from falling asleep. In fact, the noise it makes is very similar in style to the sound of rain hitting a windowpane, which is a noise that I find very calming and relaxing. So, to anyone who would like an aesthetically pleasing and relaxing wind chime, this would be a nice product.
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