giving what’s owed….

My lovely girlfriend and fellow blogger Janis (hi Janis!) nudged me the other day while I was up on a tipsy soap box about blogging, that I probably was a little behind on my own posting. So here goes a quickie…

I offered to make something as a donation for an event my sister Abbi has something to do with (see ALL that helpful info I was able to provide- scary).  She asked what I had in mind- meaning thanks, but something other than jewelry please.  So I had this hare brained idea that I could make enameled copper wind chimes.  I even sketched my ideas!  That is huge for me- very little of my creative process involves sketching out my ideas.

 

So I dove in, and things were going swimmingly until I hit one of the pipes with the handle of my hammer to see what it would sound like.  Lets just say that when my two year nephew bangs on pots and pans it is acoustically more pleasant than these wind chimes were shaping up to be.  Luckily, I had only dry fit all the components together, and I had bought an extra length of copper pipe.  I googled making wind chimes, and just as I had hoped, I found a tutorial that had a chart that gave me the specific lengths of pipe for each note, also the spot where the holes for hanging needed to be drilled so as not to interfere with the sound waves- pretty intense. (I could have skipped this whole first step had I only googled first- that is not lost on me).  I skimmed the entire post, it was very involved, but it really made a 100% difference in the chimes.  I’m not saying they could be used in an orchestra, but they sound quite lovely now.  I have cut, drilled and enameled the new set of pipes.  Tomorrow morning I will set all the hanging mechanisms for the pipes, and once again dry fit all the pieces together.  I am in a bit of a time crunch now, as they are due to Abbi the first of April, but I will snap a few photos, to show my process.  I also need to pick up some type of wooden finial to use as the “striker”.  I am enjoying this process, but don’t think I will be adding these to my web store any time soon.  I don’t think anyone would be willing to pay for the time it takes to put these things together.  I will never again wonder at the price of beautiful sounding chimes (not that I ever thought the prices outrageous, I just now have personal experience with the why behind the price).

Work is crazy, of course, but we are down to the final 3 weeks of tax season, so the finish line is visible, but this final push is always a bit painful.  Tempers run short, but we also get a bit punch drunk as well so we vacillate between killing ourselves/each other/the clients and peeing ourselves when we do something silly.  So posts will continue to be sporadic until then.

Another announcement:  my sister Abbi and I will be testing the podcast waters.  We have been wanting to collaborate on something for a long time, and given we live four hours away from each other, this seems to be accessible for both of us.  We’ll see.  Maybe we just want an excuse for a scheduled phone call to each other.  We are also working on some jewelry component design ideas, but that is still a bit vague, so more details to follow.

So, this ended up being a bit longer than expected, but just as rambling as expected.

The moral of this story- be careful what you wish for.  Seriously though- thanks Janis for the gentle reminder. Sisters in blogging!

Technorati Tags: wind chimes,copper wind chimes,enameled copper,podcast