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How to make a DIY windchime for your garden

12 May 2022

Add some colour to trees in your garden and give making a DIY terracotta windchime a go. Kids in particular will have fun decorating these pots, and you’ll be able to hang them up to show off the colourful artwork it produces. It’s a great DIY if you have spare terracotta pots stacked in a shed with no current use. Breathe new life into them with Resene testpot paints.

 

This character-packed and colourful hanging windchime has been painted in Resene Lucky Point, Resene Rain Forest, Resene Fire, Resene Rusty Nail, Resene Glamour Puss and Resene Black Weatherboards are in Resene Triple Ash and trim in Resene Quarter Thorndon Cream.

You will need:

How to:

 

Step 1: For this project you need three small terracotta pots in three different sizes. Paint each pot with Resene Aquapel & Terracotta Sealer and leave it to dry.  

 

Step 2: If you’re using very bright colours or very pale ones, paint the pots with Resene Quick Dry to help the paint cover better.  Otherwise you can skip this step.

Step 3: Paint the body of each pot in one of your favourite Resene colours, so each pot is a different colour.  Fleur painted the biggest pot with Resene Lucky Point, the middle sized pot with Resene Rain Forest and the smallest pot with Resene Fire. 

 

Step 4: Paint the rim of the biggest pot with a contrasting Resene colour.  Fleur painted the rim of the largest pot with Resene Rusty Nail, the rim of the middle sized pot with Resene Lucky Point and the smallest pot with Resene Glamour Puss.  Add on some thin stripes with Resene Black.  Use the end of a pencil or artist paintbrush to add the spots. 

 

Step 5: Take a length of string and thread two washers through it – one to work as a clapper and one to stop the string from pulling through the hole in the pot.  Thread on the smallest pot.

 

Step 6: Use a third washer and loop the string through this about 5cm above the first pot. Thread on the middle sized pot.  Repeat this again with a fourth washer for the last pot. 

 

Step 7: Tie a knot at the top of the last pot and thread on some wooden beads and tie a knot between each bead. Fleur painted her beads with Resene Glamour Puss, Resene Fire, Resene Rusty Nail, Resene Rain Forest and Resene Lucy Point. 

Fleur used a jute string with matching coloured beads to hang her windchime. If you want to hang this wind chime outside in the weather, you will need to use a rot resistant/plastic string so it lasts longer.

project and images Fleur Thorpe

Published: 12 May 2022