For my mom’s and sister’s birthdays I made them both sea glass wind chimes (technically they aren’t going to chime in the wind but they at least look pretty). It was pretty simple after some trial and error but it is somewhat time consuming.
I started out using just hot glue to get the sea glass to stick to the wire but I figured out that it won’t hold. I then switched to using super glue. Another mistake I made was I used the pen glue stick which doesn’t give off much glue at once so you have to hold the wire in place. It will work but I suggest using regular super glue so you don’t have to reinforce the hold with hot glue too.
Another change you could make is using some sort of string instead of wire. I liked the idea of using wire since the strands wouldn’t be as likely to turn or get tangled. But using string might be easier to get the glue to stick to the sea glass.
Materials:
1 or 2 Bags of Sea Glass (Michaels carries these)
Wire
Hot Glue (Optional)
Super Glue
Piece of Driftwood (long enough to fit all the strands you want)
Hemp Cord
Scissors
Instructions:
Starting out, I lined up all my sea glass in columns of the order I wanted them to go in. I set the columns to the side so I could just grab each piece as I go.
Next you will want to get the driftwood top ready since that is what you will be building off of. Starting at one end of the driftwood glue the end of the hemp to the back of the drift wood. Wrap the cord around and glue it on the back again. This helps keep the hemp cord in place. Continue to wrap it a few more times till you have 3 or 4 wraps (or however many you want). Make sure your wrap ends with the string on the back pointing upward. Leave a longish amount of string, however long you want your hanger to be. Then do the wrapping on the other side so it matches.
When doing the strands, I started with the middle one since it’s the longest and it will guide the placement of the rest of them. Unwrap some wire so you can start putting on sea glass. Don’t cut the wire until the very end. Take the piece of sea glass that is at the bottom of your middle row that you set to the side and wrap the wire, starting from the back, around it a 3 or 4 times, leaving the end of the wire sticking out. Twist the end of the wire around the wrapped wire so it knots it. Use your super glue to keep it all in place. For extra reinforcement I put hot glue on top of it. Make sure the wrapped wire stops on the back side and is pointing up.
Continue with the next piece of sea glass in your middle row. You are going to wrap this one the same, starting on the back side and end on the back side with the wire pointed up. This time you won’t be twisting the wire around it make a knot. Use the super glue and hot glue on the back.
Repeat step 4 for the rest of your middle row. Once you get to the end, unravel some extra wire to wrap around the driftwood and cut it. You will need at around 10” but you can do less or more. Put the wire behind the driftwood and pull it up until the top piece of sea glass is almost touching the drift wood. Make sure the strand is centered and start wrapping the wire around the driftwood. 4 or 5 wraps should be fine, ending with the wire on the back. Take the extra wire and tuck it under the wrapped wire so it creates a knot. Cut off any extra wire and reinforce the strand with super glue.
Continue this process until you have finished all your rows of sea glass.