The Writing Witch

This is one of my favorite Beltane crafts to celebrate spring!

Three cheers for spring!

Actually, make that five cheers, cuz we’re talking about the pentacle here!

If you’re clicking around on this website, chances are you’re already well acquainted with the pentagram, but if for some reason it’s new to you, or if you’d like a fresh perspective on what the symbol means, do have a look at my previous post, Understanding the Pentagram.

But in the spirit of spring, lets not go into a whole complicated explanation right now. Lets jump into this fun and flowery tutorial!

Honor the Elements with this DIY Penticle Wind Chime!

To make this wind chime, you will need to collect the following materials.

Please be sure to collect branches that have already fallen from the trees, so as to respect the serenity of nature.

Step 1

Cut your twigs

Assemble your five branches into the shape of a star within your hoop. Carefully use pliers, wire cutters, garden sheers, or a knife to cut your branches to fit in such a way that the star sits nicely inside the circle.

Step 2

Tie the corners of two sticks together using twine.

Step 3

Wrap the twine around tightly and carefully secure it into place using hot glue.

I’m accustomed to using hot glue, so I’ve gotten pretty good and judging when its cool enough to smush into place with my fingers for a better hold…

But do this at your own risk!

Step 4

Repeat the above process with a second set of two branches.

Now, you should have two V-shaped pieces.

Cross these so that you’re now forming a third point. You may need to play around with the overlapping method to get a sturdy star shape. It will depend on how straight your branches happen to be. When you find a sweet spot, repeat the twine process on the third point.

Step 5

Decide how far apart the remaining two sticks will need to be to connect with the final branch.

At the places where the sticks cross each other secure them together with a little glue.

Step 6

Now, complete the star by connecting the final twig at the remaining two points.

You should have something that looks kind of like this.

Again, depending on the straightness and flexibility of your twigs, you may have interwoven them in a slightly different overlapping pattern, and that’s fine! As long as it looks like a star, you’re good to go!

Step 7

If all has gone according to plan, you should be able to fit your star inside your hoop.

Now tie each corner to the hoop with a piece of twine between the joined branches of each point.

Step 8

And now, for the fun part! Glue one end of your first ribbon into place somewhere on your hoop, and begin wrapping it around in a candy cane type pattern.

Continue securing the ribbon in place with glue as many times as seems necessary as you go along.

When you reach the starting point again, cut your ribbon and glue the ends together as seamlessly as possible.

Step 8 Pt 2

Now, repeat this technique with a second ribbon color, only this time, cover the areas of the hoop that you left exposed last time.

Again, use glue to keep it in place as you wrap.

It should look like this.

Step 9

Now decide how long you want your dangling ribbons to be.

Cut pieces that are twice that long, and then fold them in half.

Between the bottom two points of the pentagram, pull the ends of the ribbon through the loop to secure it to the embroidery hoop, as depicted above.

Step 10

Then, I went about decorating it even more by gluing on fake flowers, leaves, and strings of Mardi Gras beads I had lying around just for fun.

Feel free to get creative!

Step 11

Last, but not least, it’s time to add the noise-makers!

I used washers and belly dance coins, simply because they’re what I had access to.

I glued on the coins at the ends of some of the ribbons, and with others, I looped the ends of the ribbons through the centers of the washers and secured them into place with glue. You can use little bells or keys, or whatever you want, really… Or, you can skip this step all together and have a penticle wind-catcher instead of a wind-chime!

And there you have it! Every time your lovely elemental wind chime catches your eye or ear, take a second to acknowledge the gift of the present moment! Enjoy!

Blessed be,

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