Rain chains were already used in Japan more than 300 years ago. The purpose of rain chains is to collect rain water to be used later. They usually were put around the temples or houses, a practice that still lives until today. However, in this modern era, the function of a rain chain switches from majorly being a tool to collect rain water to a garden and house decoration.
Even though some people do use the water collected by the rain chains to water their plants and flowers due to environmental reason, mostly we just put rain chains for the aesthetic reason. Therefore, there are many new beautiful rain chain designs invented and produced to meet the customer’s need. In this post, I will show you how to make flower chains rain for your house.
To make the flower rain chains, here are the things you must have.
- Aluminum soft drink cans
- Electric drill
- 1/4-inch drill bit
- Tin snips
- Black marker
- Metallic copper spray paint
- Copper tube cutter
- 1/16-inch drill bit
- 12 feet, 3/16-inch diameter copper tubing
- 16-gauge copper wire
For the flowers, first take the aluminum soft drink cans and put it upside down and drill the center of the can bottom to make a ¼-inch diameter hole. Do this in a solid surface. Then cut the top of the can for 1-inch long using a pair of tin snips. After you finish cutting, draw flower petals on the outside of the can.
Now cut the can following the flower petal pattern. Bend them outside carefully to shape the can into a flower. When the shape now reveals itself, you just need to color the flower can with copper colored paint of any other color you find suitable. Start with another can and make enough flowers to make a string of rain chain.
For the tubing, make two of 1-inch lengths copper tubing for each flower. Then drill 1/16-inch holes at the middle of both of the tube walls. Then make nineteen, six-inch length copper tubing. Make also a 1-inch loop at the end of the 16-gauge wire.
After all parts are finished, now it’s time to put those together. Pull the wire all the way through the 6-inch tubing so that the loop rests at the top of the first long section. Then thread the wire through the 1-inch copper tubing and the hole inside the flower cup. Below that, thread the wire to another 1-inch copper tubing. Repeat this step until all the flower cups are chained. Add one last tubing and lock the wire by wrapping it around the tubing before cutting it.