Dangling by a Thread

May 22, 2007 in Gardening

Birthday's are so fun and this year is no exception! I've taken to spreading out my celebrating over the entire month of May.  I got a really fun birthday gift from Tom at the office.  And he made it himself! I asked him if he would share how he did it. I named it "Dangling by a Thread Wind Chime."

Dangling by a Thread Wind Chime

Materials:

• 1 medium sized sugar bowl with lid
• 5 old pieces of eating utensils (1 butter knife, a small soup spoon, a small sugar spoon, and 2 appetizer forks) 
• Assortment of Beads
• Hanger - Tom found a wire handle to recycle.  (collecting junk to reuse in projects is recommended!)
• Beading filament string (strong)
• 6 buttons to tie off filament string inside the chime.
• appropriate drill bits to drill holes in chime body.  (Tom used an 1/8 glass bit and an 1/8" masonry bit)

Tom's Step-by-Step

1. Drill 5 holes around the bottom edge of the sugar bowl
2. Drill 1 hole through the center bottom which will hold the sugar bowl lid
3. Drill 2 holes through the top sides for the hange
4. Drill 1 hole through the handle end of each utensil
5. Cut 6 pieces of Beading Filament about 18” long
6. String utensils to middle of filament, pulling ends together and tie it off. (I grabbed both strings and looped them together and around to create my knots on this project.
7. Slide 1 bead at a time and tied them in place using this same knot until you have your finished “beaded utensil dangle”
8. Continue this step for all pieces of utensils and also the same for the sugar bowl lid which will hang down from the center hole.
9. Pull the ends of the string through one of the holes of the sugar bowl, sliding the ends through a button inside the sugar bowl and tied off to desired length using the same knot. The button is larger than the hole, thus holding the string in place.
10. Repeat this step for each piece of Beading filament string.
11. Loop hanger through holes at the top of the sugar bowl and wrap to secure.

From Tom:
My plan was to build a wind chime using an old vase, deep bowl, jar, cup or something like that, and old silverware for the dangley parts...and because Debbie is so into beading, I thought I would choose some myself and incorporate them into the wind chime somehow.

Thank you Tom - I love it and I love that you made it!  Debbie

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Media Saturdays

May 1, 2007 in Gardening

Just in case you're in the viewing or listening areas - I have a couple media appearances coming up in the next couple of Saturdays:

Saturday, May 5 at 8:00 (pacific time zone) I'm going to be interviewed by Cindy Dole on her Home Wizards Radio Show on KRLA radio (in Los Angeles, CA) My 15 minute interview will focus on simple ideas and techniques for creating Garden ornamentation.

The following Saturday, May 12 (sometime between 7:00am and 9am pacific time) I'll be doing a demo on Good Morning Northwest on KXLY TV (Channel 4 in Eastern Washington and parts of Canada) using Glass gems and sea glass to create vases, birdhouses, and flower pots. 

Hope you can tune in and be inspired for some fun new projects!
Debbie

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