Owl Wind Chime from Repurposed Silver Tray

How to create an owl wind chime from a silver tray

Fall is my favorite time of year, and I love to dig into my stashes to see what I can create for the season with what I can find.  

When I think of fall for some reason I think of owls, and they can be created from so many repurposed things. A few years ago I created a repurposed owl wind chime, and I really wanted to come up with a new version.

Even though I think owls are a little scary in real life, somehow I find them totally adorable when it comes to crafting and creating. Is that weird. lol.

So I went hunting into my stashes to see what I could find to throw together for a new owl wind chime creation. Here’s what I came up with.

Items used to create owl wind chime

• small silver tray
• 2 small tart tins
• 2 red beaded stud earrings
• 2 gold-tone end of hose nozzles
• heart pendant
• 2 hardware thingies (not sure what they are)
• gold-tone chain
• 14 1/2″ gold-tone split rings
• One 1″ split ring or key chain ring (not in pic)
• copper wire
• half of a metal nut cracker

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Tools needed to create owl wind chime

• drill and 3 1/6″ metal drill bit
• measuring tape or ruler
• black marker
• Marine Goop or E6000 glue
• pliers

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Assembling your owl wind chime

The first thing I did was the eyes. I used the Marine Goop to glue the hose nozzle thingies into the small tart tins, and then I glued the earrings inside.

I put them aside for the glue to dry and moved onto the silver tray.

Small silver plate trays come in all shapes and sizes, and this small one is about 6″ x 9″. That’s a great size for this project. Because of the pattern on the bottom of this tray I decided to use it as the front, but the other side could easily have been used as well.

I loved the dark patina on the edges of the tray so I didn’t do any polishing. I thought it would add some interest to the finished owl.

Drilling holes into the silver tray

I measured and marked where I wanted my 5 holes to be for my chimes along the bottom of the silver tray…

… and two holes for the hangers a the top.

Then I drilled the holes with a 3/16″ metal drill bit. Most of these smaller silver trays are quite thin so drilling into them is pretty easy. The trick is to go slow so the drill bit doesn’t travel on you. Have a piece of wood underneath to drill into, and make sure to wear safety goggles to protect your eyes whenever drilling into metal.

Use a rasp to file down the edges of the holes so they’re nice and smooth.

Gluing on the owl’s facial features

Once my owl eyes were nice and cured I glued them onto the silver tray. Then I glued on the heart pendant nose, and the hardware thingy eyebrows, and I used painters tape to hold them in place as the glue cured.

Creating feet for your owl wind chime

To create some feet for my owl wind chime I used a 9″ piece of copper wire. I first drilled two holes where I wanted my owl feet to be, and then I bent the copper wire between the holes so that the two sides were about equal in length.

Bending the copper wire first makes it much easier to put in place when you put it through the two holes.

I used half of a metal nut cracker to simulate a branch, and I just wrapped the copper wire around it pulling it tight as I went. If pulling it tight with your fingers is difficult, you can use pliers to help with this. To get the half of the metal nutcracker I simply pulled the two sides apart. The nutcracker I used was pretty easy to pull apart. Some sturdier ones might be a little tougher.

Here’s what they look like when both feet are done. They do look like talons to me.

Hanging the owl wind chime

To hang my chimes I used parts of an old gold-tone chain to which I added some gold-tone 1/2″ split rings. I decided to use gold here as a nod to the gold in the eyes.

I simply attached the split rings to the holes in the bottom of the silver tray…

… and onto some metal measuring spoons that I decided to use as the chimes.

And here’s my finished owl wind chime created from a repurposed silver tray. I think he’s so cute.

I used two pieces of the same chain to hang him, and there’s a 1″ key ring at the top (which didn’t make it into the pic).

Here’s the back of the chime, which is the top of the tray. You can see how that could have been used for the owl front as well. It’s really just a personal choice. The one thing to keep in mind if you use this side of a tray is to make sure whatever you wrap his talons around will fit inside the tray sides.

The fun thing about a project like this is you can repurpose bits and pieces to make your owl wind chime one of a kind.

Have fun with it, and use what you have.

I like the mix of the different colored metals, but anything goes here. It’s all about putting together your own owl creation.

This owl is for sale in my etsy shop here.

It would be greatly appreciated if you would pin this project to your favorite Pinterest board, and also share it with your friends.

Thanks so much for reading and until next time,

keep on keepin’ on!

XOX