Marnie Chicken Makes a Wind Chime
When Marnie Chicken arrived at Hazel Village, the woodland friends gave her a warm and enthusiastic welcome. (It involved a lot of singing songs and sharing of snacks.) Marnie thought to herself, “These folks sure are nice! I should make them something to say thanks.” Being a great lover of projects, Marnie always has bits and bobs at the ready to cobble into something stupendous. She looked through her supplies, and the perfect idea popped into her head: a wind chime!
Whenever Marnie is skipping along a meadow path and a glint of something shiny catches her eye, she will pause and give the object a thorough pecking to ascertain its quality. If it passes muster, she will tuck it safely into her basket backpack. Marnie had a few such trinkets with her when she arrived at the Village, though not quite enough to make the wind chime she envisioned. But this was no problem at all for a resourceful chicken – she said, “I reckon I know where I could find some more!” and marched right down to Max Raccoon’s house.
The residents of Hazel Village often introduce themselves with their favorite hobbies, so Marnie already knew that Max is a great collector of trinkets. When she explained her vision, he was more than delighted to help her out. (It just so happens that Max loves making wind chimes.) He showed Marnie his lovingly organized collection of trinkets, and together they selected several shiny things for her project. Then it was time to get to work!
- An assortment of small objects that will clink together pleasantly
- String of some sort (we used ivory embroidery floss)
- 2 sticks of about the same length
- Scissors
Marnie chose 8 shiny objects in a mixture of silver and gold: four buttons, a bell, a hex nut, and two bracket-y things. She once heard from someone that you shouldn’t mix metals, but to that she says, “Pshaw!”
Now, the beauty of a wind chime is that you can make one out of just about anything. If you wish to follow Marnie’s lead and seek out small shiny objects, the first step is to go foraging in your house or around your neighborhood. When foraging in your home, make sure that any items you find do not serve an important purpose and are therefore ok to turn into art. When picking up appealing junk from the street, we recommend giving the items a wash and also being careful in case of sharp edges.
Marnie decided her wind chime called for making some cordage, so the strings would be sturdy and more interesting to look at. She crocheted her string by holding part of it in her beak and the rest with her wingtips – impressive dexterity, Marnie! We are assuming that you have human hands, so we will teach you a different method.
We used a finger-crochet technique, which is a fast and pretty way to make cordage with no special tools. It is essentially the same technique used to hook-crochet a chain stitch: you may find this video tutorial of that technique helpful to understand the theory. If you want to skip this step, you can also braid your string or just use it as-is.
To begin, cut a long piece of string and make a slipknot at one end. This creates your first loop. The shorter end of the string is your tail, and the longer end is your working string.
Hold both the tail and the working string securely in one hand. With your other hand, reach through the loop and grab the working string. Pull the working string partway through the loop. Then pull the tail until your original loop tightens into a knot, and the working string has formed a new loop. Now you are set up to crochet!
Pull the working string partway through the loop again, then pull on it to tighten and make a new loop. Repeat this step until you have the desired length of cordage. To finish your cord, pull the working string all the way through the loop and then pull it tight.
Since Marnie had 8 objects, she made 8 cords: each about 4” long, with extra un-crocheted string on either end. When you are making your cords, make sure to think about the height that you would like your objects to hang at.
Tie one end of each cord to an object and knot it securely, trimming off the extra string.
Tie the other end of each cord to a stick. Knot securely and trim off extra string.
Marnie tied 4 objects to each stick, spaced evenly apart with a wider gap in the middle.
Place your sticks in an X shape, one on top of the other.
With one end of a long piece of string, tie a knot around the sticks to hold them in place.
Wrap the rest of the string tightly around the sticks in an X shape to bind them together. Tie off on the bottom side and trim extra string.
To hang your wind chime, make 2 additional cords that are each a little bit longer than your sticks. Tie these cords to the ends of your sticks, overlapping in the middle.
Make one more short cord and tie it in a loop.
Knot this loop around the center point of the crossed cords, so that your wind chime is balanced when you hold it up.
Marnie Chicken is a limited-edition animal! Shop our visiting friend now before she departs the Village for her next adventure.
Did you make this craft at home? Send us a photo or tag us on social media @hazelvillage! For any questions, please email us at hello@hazelvillage.com.
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