Thanks for sharing! If I had a house, I'd have a rain chain. Now I know how to make one with shower rings!

I love the idea of a rain chain... but having a basement kinda puts a damper on having them.
If I could only find a way to get the water away from my foundation, at the bottom of the rain chain.

I wonder if I could run a rain chain into a rain barrel..... hhhhmmmm.

I love rain chains but we don't get enough rain to bother. Maybe if I had a rain chain we'd get more? LOL

THat's my problem.too . We have to have a downspout that gets the water away from the foundation. Too bad .... I love the look of them. Maybe on my garage ???

TMG,
Ok, that was awesome. Michelle Kaufmann is the gal that designs those homes that I want to have put on our 20 acre Getaway (But the price is a bit hefty). I would love a rain chain but we do not get enough consistent rain. Ours would collect spider webs! :-(

Beck, I am almost certain that you could incorporate that into an underground rainbarrel/cistern. It would involve digging for sure. I don;t know if you get a lot or little rain. If a lot I'd make sure you have a big enough barrel or set of barrels to collect all that FRESH water from the roof. Make sure too you have worked a system to get the water out when you need to for use in or around your home. My hubby and I know for sure that we want to incorporate a cistern into our build whenever we do that. Just from our home in the desert and one storm last year (2-3 days worth of thunderstorms) I was able to catch 90 gallons. I could have easily caught 300 gallons if I had more trash cans. That is FREE water that I do not have to buy! Of course my method was not so easy (had to haul 5 gallon buckets of water to the trash cans!) Strategically placing them would be smart.

Anyway, great ideas brewing. Let us know what you guys do.

Love, Jules

The first time I saw a rain chain I did not know what it was until I saw them for sale. I saw it at the city educational area where they had styled a Japanese Wind Garden in the courtyard. Including steping stones and the Japanese Pines and a Koi Pond. One of the buildings had this beautiful string of what looked like squarish cow bells all strung however with a more oriental look to it. They are lovely. Those rings in the video are pricey, I think they are bookbinding rings. The chain on the other hand is cheap. But if you could collect a bunch of bells and string them...that would be awesome!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:183642}}

For those of you with foundation concerns- you can get black plastic pipe from most homestores either perferated or solid.

You would have to dig a trench and position it so that the rain chain would "dump" into it. The perferated pipe needs a layer of gravel under it and functions pretty much like an underground soaker hose with the water slowly seeping into the soil around it. The solid pipe can be run to a lower spot in the yard, a swale or wherever you would rather have the water dump.

Ask for draintile.

I am going to try it. Showed my hubby and he agrees to it. Maybe if I had a rain chain I would look at a rainy day differently...smiles

Lisa

My BFF gave me a rainchain for Christmas...ohhhh, I LOVE it and Always wanted one, but would Never pay for one...anyhoo it will be a fountain on my deck soon! I have a little pump and some tubing and a tub it will recirculate the water and make a nice sound! I will have pond plants in the tub. It is a gorgeous copper tulip design!!! Right now I have it hanging in my house cuz I love it so much and almost don't want to move it!!!ha! Even moved a hanging plant so I could have this rainchain hanging in the dining room!ha! It is in front of the patio door so it is ALMOST outside!!!ha!

wow! and i went through some of the other videos, did you see the one made with bright plastic tumblers? they have several that go into rain barrels...i'd love one myself! was going to order one from a catalog if i can't make one myself :D
thanks for sharing!
kudzu/cherry

Hi Ladies,
I just watched one of the "CREATE" shows on PBS or Create channel not sure what it is. The little hippy gal (lol that's what I call her...a young thing with almost a hippy style). She made her rain chain out of 1/4 inch copper tubing. She wrapped it around a 2 inch (inside dia.) plastic pvc tubing. Then she took her dremel with a mini saw blade attachment and cut through down the line of ringlets on the pvc tube. Then took each ringlet and bent it a bit and strung them. She then explained how to attach it to the gutter, with some copper pipe hook she bent, it was not too clear. One of her finished pics showed the end of it going into a tub of water, and while it was raining the splashing water bounced around a couple of glass floatation balls (ribbed glass though and dark colored..maybe was not glass? but looked cool). So just thought I would jump on here and tell you about that. Also while trying to find this thread again I noticed there was some posts about rain chains in the Japanese Gardens forum if you wanted more info.

I made our first one last year from 20-ounce plastic Coca-Cola bottles and six-gauge copper wire. It was time consuming, but a good way to recycle. I simply cut off the funnel-shaped portion of the top of the bottle, scuffed it, painted it with copper crafting paints, and drilled a small hole in each side. I threaded them together with the copper wire after separating the six plies. It lasted all summer. I forgot to take it down during winter, and the ice build-up in February brought it down.

Now that rain chains are catching on with more of the public, our local Menard's store stocked them. I replaced our plastic broken mess with a commercially made one, for $15. Here's a photo of our set-up, which drains into rain barrels that we made.

{{gwi:183645}}

That one is very nice, I wish we had Menard's here.I've collected the things to make one, a garage sale chain and tiny watering cans. I haven't been able to find a pre-made one for a reasonable price. Now, to just get it done.
Frou

I, too have always wanted a rain chain! Love the chain from Menard's And I wish we had a Menard's too! I always go to Menard's when I am in Indiana.
In fact, I spend more money there than any other store!

We don't have any gutters on the front of our rental house, just a eaves. I've always wanted a rain chain, but pay $80 for one? No way. Seen some homemade ones, but I'm inexperienced with metal. That video made it look so easy.
The regular chain from hardware store isn't very pretty, tho.
Main question: If you don't have a gutter, where and how would you hang one?