Whimsical Nostalgia Junk Chimes...

...rust never sleeps Click on image to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Tinkering around in my nearly completed junk-shop I was inspired to put together these wind chimes from more of my junk collection.

While removing an old hole saw from my electric drill recently I bumped the edge of the blade into something noticing that it rang out with a beautiful clear tone.

I have dozens of these old saws, of various sizes, rusting away in a box, so I had a great time digging them out and clanging 'em all together to hear their various tones, thus the idea for this wind chime was born.

For the following week or so Peggy and I were picking up every picturesque tin-can & lid we saw lying by the roadside and she also found the lovely bit of barbed wire & the old spring hanging there.

I went through our collection of beach glass from a vacation with the kids in Fort Bragg over two decades ago, finding the shell, a bottle neck, and some old ceramic pieces from electrical devices.

I strung a bunch of old dog tags, from our dear-departed pets of the past, together on a chain, an old metal California license plate tag from the year of Peggy's birth, and old brass Post Office registry cage chit, with the number 14 on it, the day of the month on which I was born.

There's an old pocket watch cover with my initials, a gift from Peg on our 10th Anniversary, which I used daily until the cover broke off (we're celebrating our 30th in 10 days).

Add some glass beads, a few old reflectors, some spinners from the tackle box, and some rusty old bailing wire, and there you have it.

I did buy some thin steel cable to suspend the whole mess from the beaded rack of manzanita wood at the top (see picture below).

I looped the cables through a pair of holes in each saw, fastening them together with aluminum cable ferrules. Suspending the hole saws in that manner allows them to ring without the tone being deadened.

The wind chimes now hang over the table on our beer garden patio, gently swaying in the breeze to play their soft clear song.

Rust never does sleep, especially around our place.

~Entire Wind Chime~ Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom