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Choosing your Chimes

With so many options on offer, how do you select the Goldilocks wind chime - 'just right!' ? Whether you are buying for yourself (and why not?), as a seasonal or birthday/wedding/anniversary gift, as a leaving/retirement present, maybe as a simple "thank-you"... or perhaps as a commemorative piece to celebrate and honour someone close who has died, there are a few steps that can help you choose.

Some decisions are practical, some aesthetic, and some will overlap a little. Among the practical choices are:
 • Is there sufficient height available to accommodate it?
• Will it be too heavy for whatever it is to hang from?
• Is the spot too calm or too windy, and is there a back-up plan?
and, of course,
• How much do I have to spend?

Aesthetically you will want to consider:
• Which sound (tuning) is right for the place where it's going?
• What shape of windcatcher do I prefer?
• Is there any engraving required on one or both sides of the windcatcher?

The table below will help with lengths, weights, and prices. Lengths are given from the tip of the hanging chain to the bottom of the windcatcher, and the weight is based on a five-chime set. These figures are intended merely as a guide, since different tunings will render different chime lengths. Do ask if you need more precise information,
and we'll sharpen the office pencil. 

Then, go over to the 'Listen' page - if you haven't already - and begin to form a sense of the sound you'd like your wind chime to give you.

To make the chimes sound, the windcatcher hangs below them and, well... catches the wind! Four typical shapes shown are heart, mandorla, circle, and teardrop, but further down you'll see examples of other outlines we've been asked for. If you have something special in mind, do ask - if we feel it's possible, we'll certainly try it.

We're also able to engrave an inscription and/or image on the windcatcher - one or both sides - for a small extra charge. The image and text should be monochrome only (no grey-scale), and we prepare artwork proofs for your approval beforehand. The artwork can be revised until you're happy with it, and if you need time to decide what it should say, no problem - we don't need to know right at the start.