How to Make a Wind Chime Out of Beer Caps
With the emphasis on recycling and reusing, many people find ways to create with commonplace objects. Bottle caps offer a versatile material for both adults and kids to use in making many kinds of craft projects. Due to their pleasing shape and metal construction, beer caps work well in wind chimes. The beer caps clink when the wind hits them together. With basic tools, you can string beer-cap wind chimes and customize them to achieve a variety of styles.
Things You'll Need
- Beer caps, 20 or more
- Paper
- Pen
- Work bench, outdoor table or cutting board
- Nail with the same thickness as the bootlaces
- Hammer
- Bootlaces---leather or cord
- Tape measure or ruler
- 8-inch stick or dowel
- Spray paint (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
- Beads (optional)
Instructions
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1
Plan your wind chime. For example, to make a wind chime with four strands of five beer caps, you will need 20 beer caps. You can draw the design on paper to plan the number of bottle caps you need.
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2
Set up your project on a surface you don't mind putting holes in, such as an old cutting board. Place beer caps upside down---so the cap's edge faces up and the written side is against the cutting board. Position a nail at the center of a beer cap and hit it with a hammer to make a hole through the bottle cap. Push a bootlace through the hole to check that the hole is large enough. If it's too difficult to get the lace through the hole, redo the hole with a larger nail. For best results, the fit should be snug, so the beer caps won't slip.
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3
Make holes in the rest of the beer caps.
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4
Use a ruler or measuring tape to mark the bootlaces for the beer cap locations. For example, to hang five bottle caps on each strand, mark the bootlace every 2 inches, starting 6 inches from the top. This leaves room for tying the strand of beer caps to the crossbar. Put all of the bootlaces side by side and mark them each at the same measurements so the bottle caps will hit each other.
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5
String the bottle caps on the bootlaces, pushing the first one down to the lowest mark on the bootlace, then adding the next one and pushing it down the next mark. Continue until there is a beer cap at each mark on each bootlace. Tie a knot in the end of each bootlace under the lowest bottle cap and cut the excess bootlace. A square knot or any kind of knot is fine.
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6
Use the ruler or tape measure to make four marks on the stick 1 1/2 inches apart.
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Tie the top of each bootlace at one of the marks and make a knot to hold it on.
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Tie a bootlace to the middle of the stick. Tie a loop in the end of the bootlace to go around a nail or a hook to hang the beer-cap wind chime.
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Tips & Warnings
Add beads between the beer caps and on the ends of the bootlaces, if desired.
Spray-paint the caps different colors or use glitter glue on them for a colorful effect.
Hardware stores will cut a dowel to the length you want.
Use garden clippers to cut a stick.
References
- Photo Credit bottle cap image by EuToch from Fotolia.com
