This clay pot wind chimes tutorial is super sweet if you’re looking for something to do with your small terracotta clay pot collection! The ones that are like, real small, like 4 or 5″ in height are ideal for this craft. You can also combine multiple pots of varying sizes and create a swag effect windchime lawn ornament too!
That would look real good with pots arranged from largest to smallest. I’ll show you how to use both these approaches!
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Materials List
Get one or more pots…some heavy stringing material or leather cord, jute, etc., depending on what kind of objects you want to attach together. Some paint if you want to paint your clay pot(s) as well as some basecoat white primer. Assorted beads and metal objects, or if you can locate some of the metal tubes, too, even better.
Objects that will look the best include those that are natural and “earthy” looking…Objects that will compliment your terra cotta pot, include:
- Wooden beads
- Small plaster shapes
- Large clay beads (preferably in a natural color)
Painting Your Clay Pots
At first I wanted to make my clay pot left natural….but then it looked like it had some faded spots on it (I must have had these awhile) so I decided to paint it. Before you get started, save yourself some unnecessary trouble and apply a white primer base coat as that terracotta color will show through without it.
You May Also Find Helpful: How to Paint Clay Pots
After the paint is dry, you could also decorate your pot(s), you could stencil it too when the base coat is dry. Or you could use something like part of a sponge dipped in paint and applied to one side – creates a unique textural effect.
Stenciling is a great idea to decorate your pot after you apply the base coat color of choice. It’s getting close to spring officially so I’ve got flowers on the brain, hehehe. Thinking colorful tulips, daisies, etc.
My pots…the largest one, I’ve painted yellow, using this approach. The second largest one, I sorta-kinda did a freehand approach (I couldn’t find my “real” stencils at the moment…so I recreated some) and the smallest, spring green.
Make a Clay Pot Windchime Using Multiple Pots
Do you want to make a wind chime using multiple pots? Having two or three pots with different sizes and two being gradually smaller, is a strategy that looks good. Using strong cord will work better for this…Something made of leather would be excellent; it will be strong enough to support multiple pots in a row.
Stringing and attaching objects…Now I’m going to get my beads in order. I don’t have any wooden ones at the moment, but what I do have is some I made myself using polymer clay. As you know the bottom of the pot has a little drainage hole in it…we want to create something to plug that hole so the windchime will hang. Depending on how big the hole is…you’ll need a couple of beads that should be a little bit bigger than that hole.
Although I pre-pierced all of my clay beads, the hole wasn’t quite big enough for that jute cord to get through – so I decided to drill the holes slightly bigger.
Yes, you can drill through polymer clay objects…it just leaves a little bit of waxy dust behind.
Thread the first of the two beads through the thread or cord through the pot on the inside….You can make a loop (which will be your hanger later) that threads through the bead. Knot it securely. As it turned out, the hole in the bottom of the largest pot, which is probably about the size of a nickel in diameter, needed something a little wider to keep the cord in place. I did come up with a good hack – the use of a washer placed strategically under it.
After I threaded the washer on, I followed with another of my large beads.(image 1) I then made a knot just under that bead so it wouldn’t slip around (image 2.)
When I was satisfied there (it took a little guesswork) I moved on to the next two pots, which have respectively smaller holes, and no need to plug the gap. I commenced with the pattern of one clay bead to close the gap, then another bead for decoration then knot under it, then the next pot (image 3.)
If you are using some type of cord, either that of leather or jute, pony beads would work real well for this too.
Lots of unique possibilities with the “tiered” approach using multiple pots!
Making Chimes From a Single Pot and Multiple Objects
If you’d prefer (or only have) just one small pot, you can make this work well, too! Check out this approach with shapes made from what I think are candy molds and plaster/grout used to form them used in this chime decoration. This is an idea if you’ve scoured your craft supply for suitable beads but come up short.
Image credit: sudaem3
To have a chime set like this you’ll need to have a well-balanced placement – about 3 is ideal. You may need to come up with a suspension platform that will support the strings and their respective objects. Make sure there is adequate space between each strand. If you have any confusion whatsoever about how the different objects in chimes are arranged, I think you’ll find this post helpful.
As I did with my set as you string the different objects, you’ll want to tie a knot after each bead/object so they’ll stay in place.
Hanging Your Windchimes
When you’ve tested it out by holding it up inside to make sure everything is attached securely, now you can hang up your chimes!
I’m going to give my pot a spray coat of protective polyurethane before hanging, since it will be outside for the long haul!
Hope you enjoyed! Now get yourself some cute little clay pots and go to town!
