The Unique Wind Chimes Guide is here to help you gather ideas for your ideal wind chimes.

Find out about cost, mounting, protecting its parts, and how design and space can change a wind chime's sound.

Understand when it's safe to use a unique wind chime outside and how to harness the wind when decorating with sound and motion -- inside and outside.

That's not all! 

Most every unique wind chime article at easy-outdoor-decor.com ends with snap shots of the wind chimes in and around my home. And the unique wind chimes photo essay has pics of all my chimes.

So feel free to bounce around.

And if you have a little time to spare, and you also like mushy love stories, don't bounce, but scroll to see how unique wind chimes can reveal secrets about people you think you know.

My husband, the soldier. It was him playing the wind chimes! Every single one of them!

From a distance I watched him move one, then another. When he got them all going again, he closed his eyes.

The  expression on his face! It was full of emotion, so peaceful and happy as he tilted his head slightly and listened to the sounds fade slowly.

After all this time, I thought I knew everything about him.

But when I saw how he responded to the wind chimes, I knew I had just gotten a deeper glimpse inside his true heart, revealing a thing he’d kept secret.

That's when my quest began for the most interesting and unique wind chimes I could find.

I'd do anything to see him that happy all the time!

I've got about 10 unique wind chimes in my collection right now.

Some more unique than others.

They're hanging all over the place -- inside the house and out.

In a hurry yet?

Unique wind chimes are as much about visual art as they are about lovely sounds.

They're eye candy even when the wind's not blowing. And they sing to us when it is.

They set the mood inside and out and invite a little summer to linger all year long.

But, before we talk about unique wind chimes, let's take a minute and talk about the word "unique".

Qualities defined as unique by one might be defined as peculiar or even plain by another.

Here are a few words and phrases commonly used to describe something that is unique:

How do you define unique? I define it as anything that's quirky. Is quirky even a word?

The point is this: "Unique" is a concept that's almost impossible to describe, but you know it when you see it. Right?

Having personally come face-to-face with unique many times, I can depend on having an emotional reaction to it. I don't get hysterical or anything. But I definitely feel something shift.

When that happens, when I get that feeling, I don't care about the price (to a point).

Some of my wind chimes are very unusual-looking, and others look like any other wind chime you've ever seen. But all of them are unique, because of how I came to have them.

A truly unique wind chime, might cost a little more. Not always, but sometimes.

I have 2 beautifully unique wind chimes I paid between $250 and $300 for. What can I say, they moved me!

The artist who created the chimes featured at the top of this page makes several other unique wind chimes that cost less than $60.

So we're not talking an arm and a leg.

I mention this here so you're not surprised if the cost is more than $15. And also to tell you that unique doesn't mean out of reach.

There are some benefits to paying a little more.

• Some tolerate weather conditions better

Sound & Space

Only metal wind chimes can be tuned to play notes and harmonized cords. Some are even tuned to play popular melodies. And others aren't tuned at all.

Woodstock wind chimes are a fabulous example of a tuned wind chime. They are precisioned tuned.

Bamboo wind chimes are untuned wind chimes.

Want your wind chime to sing lots of songs with lots of notes? Just get one with lots of tubes. More tubes mean more notes, more harmonies, and more songs.

To get your wind chimes to sing almost all the time, and also have them tell you about changes in the weather, hang them in high open spaces.

Under the house eves, or an open space under a deck. And anywhere on the windy side of the house works well.

Choosing an area that's less exposed like under a tree, in a recessed corner of the deck close to the house, or on the not-so-windy side of the house will have your wind chimes singing less often.

Hanging your wind chimes just above the top knot gives them more freedom of movement. If they swing more freely they'll sing more freely.

For fewer songs, try hanging them just below the second knot.

If you want, bounce -- to the photo essay  of my unique wind chimes. It may spark some ideas you can use to get your wind chimes singing indoors.

Top of page

Sound & Design

All the action starts with a wind chime's "sail". It's the part of a wind chime that hangs the lowest. It hangs even lower than the tubes. The average sail weight is calculated so it won't swing until breezes reach 8-10 mph. Changing the sail weight changes the amount of music your wind chime plays. Lighter sails swing more freely in softer breezes so your wind chimes sing more often. Wind chimes with heavier sails sing most often in stronger breezes. Then there's the "clapper". The sail hangs from the clapper. And the clapper rests very close to the wind chime tubes. When the wind grabs the sail, the clapper moves too, coming into contact with the wind chime tubes, and the tubes come into contact with each other. Ta-da, your wind chime is singing! The notes a wind chime can sing depend on the length, width, and thickness of the clapper, the sail and the tubes. Also the spacing between the tubes, where the clapper hits the tubes. And how much vibration occurs when this happens. Manipulating these factors is how unique wind chimes are tuned. Long, wide metal tubes sing in deeper tones. Short, narrow tubes sing higher notes. Exotic bamboo pipes produce deep, hollow, mellow notes. Seashells and chatter in the breeze. Glass, ceramic, and polished stones resonate with tiny tinkling pitches.