Beaded Fish Windchime

Spring is here and we've been doing some work out in the yard. We still have lots of trees to finish cutting up and logs to split and one pile of limbs still to burn before we will be all cleaned up from the ice storm we had back in December. But this past weekend we spent some time turning over the dirt in our planting beds and putting in our tomato plants and some basil. My little garden helpers were right there with me, digging in the dirt and sprinkling carrot seeds, poking holes and planting green beans. The strawberry bed has been covered with netting, actually tulle right from Walmart's fabric department, to keep the critters from enjoying our delicious crop. This should be another good year from growing yummy treats in the gardens!

The front porch also got some new hanging flower baskets and my two fish wind chimes were brought up from their winter hiding place to swing in the breeze for the summer. Here's one of them hanging on the end of the front porch...


As you can see, it's a beautiful spring day here in New England. Just sticking out of the bottom of this picture, you can see the steel drum that we have been using to burn all the sticks and branches from ice storm. Hopefully we'll be able to put that away soon. But there's my little bejeweled fish, hanging from the end of the porch catching the wonderful breezes we get up here on top of the hill.


This is the one I made just recently. These were kits that I purchased from Herrschner's quite some time ago on clearance. I find some great deals there. I made up two of them and have used them for a few summers, but last night I was looking for a quick project to do before time to make dinner, so I checked my cabinet for something and found this fun little kit.


It came with the wire fish shape and all the beads and string and mirrors, and I put it all together. It only took about an hour to string everything the way I wanted it and then glue all the knots to make sure they wouldn't come out.


The little mirror shapes are in pairs, sandwiched together and glued with the string in the middle. The stained glass shapes in red and green have loops already attached to them for tying on the string. The colored beads of different shapes hang in between to add color and sparkle too. To make them stay put, I just threaded the string through the bead, then brought it back around and threaded it again in the same direction. This allows the beads to be moved up and down the string for easy placement, but they will not slide down the string on their own.


At the bottom of each string is a little puffy plastic heart shape to finish it off.

Beaded wind chimes can be made with any type of shape that you make or buy, adding any decorative elements you may already have around the house for color and sparkle, and stringing them in a way that you find pleasing. Of course a kit is always the easiest way to do something like this, since all the parts are provided. But with a little creativity and imagination, you can come up with your own original artwork to hang on the front porch and catch the fabulous breezes that are sure to be coming your way soon!

Happy Stitching!

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