How to Make Wind Chimes, Bells and Other Musical Features for Your Garden

Blissful Sounds

What can be more comforting than listening to the blissful sounds of music emanating from the garden? Bells, wind chimes and mobiles are popular musical features that can be created easily from nearly any object, including a variety of everyday household items and added to your garden. From metal bowls, pots, pans, and utensils to wooden dowels, gourds, seashells, and coffee cans, there is musical potential everywhere you look.

Bells for your garden can easily be created with old metal cups, bowls, or pans. Use a drill to make a small hole in the bottom. Run a length of wire or string through the center hole and secure it with a suitable fitting bolt, leaving enough string out to form a loop for hanging. Attach a metal weight to the other end of the wire. Flip over and hang.

Wind chimes and mobiles come in many forms and are made from a variety of materials. These can be assembled with an array of metal objects such as pipes, nuts and bolts, electrical cover plates, eating utensils, knitting needles, etc. For example, try drilling a small hole into the center and along the sides of a flat metal object, such as a cover plate or piece of sheet metal. Just as with a bell, run a length of wire or string through the center hole and secure it with a suitable fitting bolt. Attach a metal weight to the other end of the wire. Place various lengths of metal pipes, knitting needles, etc. through the sides, making sure the center weight chimes are made with strikes against them. Hang your delightful creation and enjoy its soothing tones. Some metal tubing and scrap pieces of metal fashioned into decorative shapes. Note that larger items will emit deeper tones while smaller ones produce softer melodies.