The Crafty Mom: The Craft That’s Blowin’ in the Wind!

By Mary Lyon


Here’s a perfect project for an imperfect weather day. Since sometimes March comes roaring in like a lion, let’s take advantage of some of the sound and the fury! Make a fun wind chime with items you’re likely to find in your kitchen junk drawer! It’s easy, any age child can do this project and it assembles in mere minutes. All you need is an older person to handle the glue gun and hold everything in place while you experiment. An added bonus: This craft teaches kids about the art of balance.

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What You Need

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  • wooden chopsticks

  • a couple yards of colorful string or yarn

  • scissors

  • assorted screws, nails, metal washers, metal bottle caps and pull tabs

  • 1 or 2 old keys

  • medium heat glue gun

  • a weight (such as a plastic bottle of soap, a thick book or heavy object)

  • yardstick or sturdy ruler


What You Do

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1. Separate the chopsticks. Tie some string to the middle of one. Make sure there’s a foot or so of length. You’ll be hanging the wind chime from this. Attach the other chopstick underneath the first one, tying it in the middle with another, shorter piece of string.

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2. Tie the loose piece of string to the end of the ruler. Place the ruler on a table so the chopsticks hang freely from one end of it. Weigh the other end down on the table top with the weight.

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3. Cut about a dozen 6- to 8-inch lengths of string. You’ll use these to hang items from all four ends of the chopsticks. Tie a nail, bolt, metal nut, screw or washer – separately or in combination – to one end of each string.

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4. Now, tie some of those hanging items from Step 3 onto the ends of the chopsticks (have your crafting partner help to secure the chopsticks). Don’t be afraid to experiment with the weights of these. The objective is to get both chopsticks to hang, evenly balanced.

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