Tuesday 30 June 2015

Painted Terracotta Pot Beaded Chimes


It's hot hot hot! I am not going to complain one bit, it's been a long time coming this summer! I do wish I had an air conditioner though. We had one in our previous house, but the set up of this house makes having one a tricky thing! I managed to vacuum downstairs before getting too hot. Upstairs will have to wait till later!

So while I am cooling off with a nice cold drink, I thought I would share these easy wind chimes with you all. Well I say wind chimes, they don't actually chime, but you get the idea.



The garden coming into bloom!



I actually made these last year but didn't thread the beads on strong enough thread. I was constantly worried they were going to drop and break.

All you will need for this craft is :-

Plain terracotta pots, any size that you fancy as long as they are not too big as that may put too much strain on the wire you use to thread the beads.
A selection of beads. I purchase a mixed pot from Hobbycraft along with some smaller packets of beads in colours that matched the paint I was using.
Acrylic paint. I chose 3 different colours for variety, shown below.


Clear sealer. Easier to use than the bottled varnish and weather proof.


Wire to string the beads with. I used florist wire.

Firstly paint your pots.  The pots took 2 to 3 coats of paint to develop a nice deep even colour.


Once fully dried, spray your pots with the sealer. It is best to build this up in a couple of coats. Plus it gives the pots a lovely sheen. I don't plan to have this out all year round, just the summer months.

Take a selection of beads, either matching them to your painted pots, or being completely abstract! I decided to select beads in similar colours with a few tonal beads added in.

I selected lots of simple pony beads to thread on which would mainly be in the pots and therefore not visable. All the pretty beads I strung after these so they could be seen.


Purples and Pinks.


Greens and Pinks, plus a bike charm I picked up a long time ago.


Blues with Orange.

I eyeballed how much wire I would need and the rough gap I wanted between each pot and cut it to size. I began by knotting the bike charm at the base of the wire, then threaded on my green and pink beads, followed by a set of green pony beads. I kept one larger bead back which would sit at the hole on the base of each pot to keep the pots in place. The green pot was then threaded over the top of these beads. I then moved onto the blue set of beads, doing the same thing. Finally I added the purple beads. I made a loop with the wire at the end and reinforced this with extra wire wrapped around the loop and the top of the wire thread.



And that's it!

I love how they add a little colour to the garden.


You do want to hang them on a strong branch as they are quite heavy.


I love the bike charm!


Have a lovely warm sunny week!









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