Feel the Wind in my Chimes

My great grandmother was creative and crafty, from what I can tell. I have oil paintings, wood carvings, collage, glass light fixture, needlepoint, leaf prints on fabric, an apron... all of which she made. I have wonderful memories of visiting her in her house on a hill in the middle of an apricot orchard, walking through the yard and seeing all the beautiful exotic plants, then sitting in the kitchen for a snack and a cup of tea. She was a tough lady and far from perfect (as we all are) but she also seemed to be very driven, passionate and creative. I don't know what terms my other family members would use to describe her. I like to think that I've inherited some of her passion and creativity (and probably her stubborn streak as well and perhaps my you telling me that it won't work will only fuel my drive to do it and succeed attitude also).

When my grandparents passed and we were cleaning out their house one of the things I got was wind chimes that my great grandmother had made that had hung on the back porch at my grandparents house for about as long as I can remember. Just looking at conjures the smell of that porch, where the laundry where, where the dog would go if she needed to be inside... Well, it wasn't in good shape and wasn't going to travel well so I deconstructed it, kept the glass and plastic blue beads and have been meaning to use the parts to make my own wind chimes.

I started by pulling out my beading box, ribbons, mardi gras necklaces, old keys, some wood and metal and cut some green branches off of a bush in the backyard...

I decided to braid/weave together the branches I had cut and use that for the support

I strung a mardi gras beed necklace through the branch

then I tried to lay out how I wanted the glass to be arranged

Once I decided on an arrangement I decided it would be easier to work with the it hanging so I could keep things from getting too tangled up, so I hung the branch on a curtain rod which also allowed me to see how the light will look hitting the chimes. Then I began, one vertical row at a time...

Now I'm going to take a break and come back and look at it in a hour and see if I still like the way it's come out before I make the final ties and cut off extra string etc. Then I have to find a place to hang it!