How To Make A Seashell & Bead Wind Chime

This seashell & bead wind chime is so fun to make and a perfect way to display your vacation treasures. Best of all it was free to make because we had all the materials on hand! 

seashell and bead windchime being held up by twine

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We recently came home from a beach vacation and brought home approximately 1 million seashells that my boys found and fell in love with. Instead of keeping the shells in a bag we decided to make some fun crafts with them!

About half way through our vacation I realized my boys had a love for collecting seashells and I needed to think of what we were going to do with all of them when we got home. We made seashell picture frames and painted our seashells with shaving cream but still had so many shells left. This wind chime was a perfect craft to do with my older kids and was so much fun to make! 

We also loved these bags to collect all of our shells in, my kids used these very day of our vacation!

3 boys walking on sand with seashell bags

​Wind Chime Seashell Craft

I love easy, inexpensive crafts. This craft was incredibly budget friendly, we used seashells and driftwood from our trip and then beads and fishing line I found in our craft bin which made this craft free to make.

However, I have to warn you, this is not a quick, simple craft. It took us about 30 minutes to complete a wind chime and my 7 & 9 year old needed adult help for the entire craft.

I embraced this and saw it as a perfect opportunity to spend 1:1 time with each of them talking about our vacation and the time passed really quickly! Don’t try to pressure yourself into getting this craft done in 10 minutes. You will end up really stressed and disappointed, instead enjoy the process. 🙂 

supplies for seashell wind chime on table

Materials For DIY Seashell Wind Chimes

  • Fishing line
    • You can also use a piece of twine or yarn. The twine makes a fun beachy look but your seashell holes have to be a bit bigger to make this work. 
  • Wood piece
    • We used driftwood we found at the ocean, but a stick or dowel would also work. I have also seen people use an embroidery hoop which is a fun variation to this project.
  • Seashells
    • If you don’t have any on hand craft stores such as Hobby Lobby sell shells!
  • Beads
    • These are optional, but add a little color and character to each wind chime. I have also seen sea glass used in place of beads!
wind chime laying on table

How To Make Your DIY Seashell & Bead Wind Chime

Before you begin you need to clean your seashells to make sure they don’t end up smelling. We prefer soaking them in a 1:1 beach and water mixture for around 10 minutes. This combination is an easy way to clean them (and it really brightens the shells too!) but there are a lot of options for cleaning your shells

All of the shells you use need to have a small hole in it. When we were on vacation I already had my eye on doing this craft when we got home so I found shells that had holes in them already.

If you don’t have shells with holes you can easily make them! This is a great tutorial on how to use a small drill bit to create small holes in your shells without cracking them. 

seashells sitting on table that have holes in them

​Take your piece of wood, shells and beads and lay out your design for your wind chime

​Cut your fishing wire to about 1 1/2 times the length that you want your string to be on your chime. This gives you some room to play with and takes into account the knots you will make. 

child stringing on seashells to windchime

Tie the string or fishing line to the top of your wood piece

String the beads or seashells on the fishing wire

Tie it on securely before moving to the next piece (I used a double knot and sometimes a triple knot to make sure it was secure).

Once your line is done cut your fishing wire so there is about a 1 inch tail at the end. You can make it a bit shorter if you are using twine or yarn.

child holding stick while mom is helping string on beads and seashells

Repeat the last 2 steps until you have completed your lines on your wind chime. I found it really helpful to have someone hold the stick up while doing this so I could clearly see the spacing between the objects. However, you can also lay it on the table. Just be mindful of how the shells are laying so you know where to put the next shell or bead. 

Add ribbon, twine or really anything you want at the top of your wood stick to hang your wind chime. We used twine and I tied it on both ends of the stick which worked well. 

Hang your finished product outside, in your flower gardens, on your front door or use it as a wall hanging indoors! 

3 seashell wind chimes hanging from tree

Other Fun Beach Crafts

It is so fun to hear the sound of the shells when the summer breeze clings them together. These seashell & bead wind chimes are one of my favorite beach crafts we have made to date! 

Pinterest Pin For Wind Chime

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