Stained Glass Windchimes

Another one of the recent Facebook groups I joined was a stained glass group. I've made a few things in stained glass but I never felt that my soldering was sturdy enough. I saw someone post a project on the group that didn't require any soldering, though, and decided to make my own version!

I got some thick copper wire at Home Depot in the electrical department. I am not sure how long the spool of it was but I have enough to make about four of these, for around $15. I have a stash of stained glass due to lucking into someone selling a huge bin of it at a yard sale once....got the glass and some tools for $25! I used iridescent and clear. 

I have a set of glass drills from Harbor Freight (best place to buy tools and some supplies cheaply!) but didn't want to bother with using them, so I decided to use my grinder's wheel to grind rounded indentations so I could use that to attach them to the wire instead. Much faster! I used this rubbery clear/white hollow tubing I bought for jewelry at Hobby Lobby - it comes in black and white together in the package, but I have never had a use for the white until now! I think they use it for pony beads. 

So I had a lot of that on hand and decided to reinforce it with some fishing line inside it. I cut small pieces of the tubing, ran some fishing line through it, wrapped it around the indentations in the glass and then secured it with some 20 ga copper wire I had from jewelry making. Then I added some beads, and more tubing, and attached it to the wire with some more wire wrapping. The pictures might make that clearer!

I have a large stash of beads...a lot of these were from a package I got from a friend who had purchased them at a yard sale. I am not sure about whether this should be used outdoors, although all of the materials are rather weatherproof I will have to decide whether or not to seal the copper so it doesn't tarnish. Below is a closeup so you can see the variety of beads I used and how I secured the pieces to the wire. I wrapped a package of 20ga around the thick wire and left spaces where I could run the individual danglies I made. It is a pretty simple project, just requiring a glass cutter and the supplies I mentioned. I didn't cut straight lines, it is mostly freeform. I just ground the sharper edges off and left it rather - whimsical, shall we say! You COULD wrap the edges but then the glass wouldn't "chime". It doesn't really make a sound like windchimes are supposed to, though, anyway! More of a tinkle. :D You can vary how it hangs, by making the spiral wider...which would shorten it up some. Or make the circumference smaller and then it would hang lower. I have to take it outside and get some pictures with the sunlight hitting it! 

Update! Here's one in the sun. :) I just love this glass! <3

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