Rain Chains

I've been looking at making rain chains for a few months now. Checking out all the cool rain chains on Pintrest and other sites. 

See Tyler working away in the background.

Deciding on 2 different types just for fun.  One out of bottles and one out of zinc strips left from the roofing.  For the bottle chain we bought a bottle cutter and I made copper chains from recycled copper grounding wire. 

Ginger beer bottles and copper chain.

The leaf rain chains took a little more thought and prep work to make.  I made a leaf shape template out of an recycle plastic container and marked and cut the shapes out of the zinc strip.

simple leaf shape

marked on the zinc strip

Adding a hole at the top of the leaf and pinching it just a bit.  Then cut copper wire to slip through the hole and use as a hanger on the copper chain.

rough measure

a little curl to hold it in place

slip through the hole

Make the chain links by wrapping the wire around a broom handle many times.  Then cut out the individual chains to link together.

Lots of wrapping

clip them into jump rings

link them together to make a chain.

I then twisted the leaf wire onto every second chain and there you have it.  A home made rain chain.  

Only another 8 feet to go.

They are going to look so great on the corners of the house when we get the gutters back on.