Why bamboo Wind Chimes?

American made natural bamboo wind chimes

The Short Answer

Because a quality set of bamboo wind chimes takes you on vacation, without having to leave your patio!

And let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little vacation now and then? Most Americans associate this super Eco-friendly plant with the tropics, swaying palms, the crash of waves, a tall cold beverage in hand. Exotic and beautiful, yet ultra relaxing. If you listen, you’ll notice in the background, the woody “tinks” and ‘tonks” of bamboo tubes clattering together in the form of a wind chime, dancing with the light sea breezes, random, natural, organic, a bit like earth and a bit like rain. Grounding and rejuvenating. Vacation… yet it brings you to the now. The present moment. Sanctuary. And that is the wonderful balance of a quality hand-crafted set of natural bamboo wind chimes, even if they come from Ohio.

The long answer

While any bamboo wind chime will likely produce some of the above effects, to get the real benefits for the longest amount of time, it helps if the bamboo is treated with care from the beginning. You see, bamboo has a mind of it’s own, and it’s best if you listen to it, as it will tell you what it wants to become. Our wind chimes are designed and crafted for what’s best for the bamboo, not necessarily what’s easiest for the human. Every piece of bamboo is unique and some simply make better wind chime pipes, while others prefer to be made into sculpting tools or key fobs. Then, through experience, we’ve learned how to treat bamboo, to bring out it’s legendary properties of strength and resilience, and get it’s natural beauty to pop, as we transform it from plant to product.

Just as with a real vacation, it’s best to do a bit of research to make sure it’s the best bamboo wind chime for you. Here are our top 7 reasons to choose a Domestic Bamboo wind chime set:

provenance

Though a bamboo wind chime may evoke feelings of being in a distant foreign land, it doesn’t mean the actual bamboo or the guy who cut it down and made it should be! With a DomesticBamboo wind chime, you’ll know right where your bamboo grew up… chemical free in southern Ohio, USA. Shoot, you can e-mail the guy who grew your bamboo, cut it down, cured it, heat treated it, strung it together, and tested it, before it shipped out. Try that with a cheap coconut shell import!

beautiful set of bamboo wind chimes from Ohio, USA

Proven design

After trying a slew of various designs for bamboo wind chimes, I landed on a Signature Style. The design is simple and clean with an elegant and exotic look. Each set is completely unique, yet carefully crafted to insure it out-performs the imports. It’s nearly impossible to get super tangled up, it doesn’t require much room, it looks and functions great, with parts that are all easily replaceable, and with a bit of care should last years. Nothing fancy, no coconut shells or pink flamingos, just a well crafted set of wind chimes, made from all-natural American grass! 400+ wind chime sets sold and shipped.

Durability

We tested numerous different products for stringing our wind chimes together. Polypropylene twine was the best performer, lightweight, durable, long-lasting, and easy to work with. We take the extra step of heat-sealing all our knots to insure they will never come untied. Unlike other designs which thread horizontally through both walls of a pipe, which not only cause wear on the string, reducing it’s longevity, it also only allows the pipe to swing on 1 plane, reducing it’s ability to interact with the other pieces causing sound to be produced. We string down through the nodes, increasing string life and increasing action.

Bamboo is susceptible to insect damage, as well as weather and UV degradation. Most commercial bamboo is either treated with boric acid or harsh chemicals in order to address insect damage. Here at Domestic Bamboo we use heat, in the form of various open flame artistic techniques to heat treat each piece, followed quickly by a warm burnish with our bamboo conditioner. This process sweats out the plants natural oils, which when burnished once they rise to the surface, harden into a protective enamel shell, which sheds moisture and inhibits UV penetration. The heat treatment provides another vital function, it reduces the moisture and starches which attract insect damage. Plus, a quality heat treatment brings out the natural beauty of bamboo, adds visual depth and contrast and gives our chimes that one-of-a-kind look.

CARE AND FEEDING

First, realize it’s just grass and subject to all the things that affect organic matter. However, in order to increase your chances of a longer lived set of wind chimes, hang wind chimes under a deep eave or awning. Direct open exposure to the elements will reduce the lifespan of your wind chimes. An occasional rub down with a bamboo conditioner or any oil / wax wood feeder will go a long way in keeping the bamboo supple and functioning. Don’t pull hard on the pipes as your do this, to avoid pulling out the strings. Pay extra attention to any end grain, as this is where the humidity transfer happens, and the wax / oil slows this process down. In affect, clogging the pores, which gives time for the bamboo to respond rather than cracking from shrinkage, extending the life of the tubes.

Eco-friendly

boho eclectic earthy wind chimes, artsy cool, made in USA

Compared to other possibilities, bamboo is near impossible to beat. Consider the energy output required for extraction and manufacturing of metal or plastic parts, say nothing of the waste generated. What about wood? Compared to an equal sized stand of trees, bamboo will generate over 30% more oxygen and sequester 2x- 5x the amount of carbon, depending on the tree species. Trees require decades to harvest, bamboo generally takes 2-3 years, after which because bamboo is all connected by an underground root structure, repeatedly produces larger pieces, every year, year after year. It isn’t really even close, if caring for the future of our planet is important to you, then hand made bamboo wind chimes are the very best you can buy.

Our groves are natural bamboo and have never seen pesticides, herbicides or any other chemicals. Harvest requires me to go outside with a handsaw and cut down bamboo, followed by using hand pruners to clip the branches, then the bamboo is stored under cover for a few months to cure. We transform the plant into product using a torch and our hands. We even use old split pieces, normally discarded, as wind-chime sails. We have neighbors giving us their plastic shopping bags, normally discarded, that we use for packing our wind chime sets. It’s not at all perfect, but we’re giving it a go.

sound performance

Wind chimes are just a sculpture if they don’t dance with the wind and sing their song! There are many factors that determine the sound a set of wind chimes will make: the age of the bamboo when harvested, the species, the length of the pipes, the diameter of the pipes, the thickness of the walls, the original position of the pieces along the vertical culm, the distance between strung pipes, the length of the strings, the length and diameter and age etc of the dongers, the collection of pipes as a choir, the interaction between parts, and the overall design of the set as a whole.

After 400+ sets of listening to bamboo, I’m starting to get a pretty good feel for what selection of parts might go together to produce the rich resonant tones described best in a 5 star review as…”natural, a bit like earth, a bit like rain”. Bamboo does have a mind of it’s own however, and on rare occasion I’ll craft a set of wind chimes, only to discover that’s not what these pieces of bamboo wanted to become. If it lacks that special playfulness and resonance that is our standard, then I deconstruct it and some parts move on to lead long happy lives as door beads, sculpting tools or pendants. Though every one of our wind chime sets is unique and will sound a bit different, every one grounding and rejuvenating, a bit like earth and a bit like rain.

moon phase burn art on natural bamboo wind chimes for zen relaxing

Replaceable parts

First, recognize that we’re talking bout grass, subject to all the natural processes of decay that affect all organic matter. Considering it's only made of hollow grass, the life expectancy of our heat treated bamboo can be remarkable robust, and though our wind chime sets dance wonderfully in the wind and rarely get tangled, I’ve know a few sails who, during strong gusts at the end of the rope, simply can't hang on and the cord snaps, and just like a boat who lost a sail... it just don't work right! I’ve know a few pipes to split during extended periods of low humidity. These things happen, wind chimes connect humans directly to nature in real time, and sometimes mother nature throws a bit more at us than normal, and things break down.

For our wind chimes, we offer replacement sails, pipes, and dongers; pre-strung, ready to use, and easy to tie on to your existing set, to keep it dancing with the wind and your vacation vibe going. Plus, you can get a hold of the guy that made them should there be any issues. What happens when the mass produced chimes inevitably lose sails and pipes? You’ll end up throwing the whole thing away.

unique aesthetic

Our wind chimes add to the ambience of your oasis, truly unique, no two ever identical. Every one though has that undeniable visual appeal, the unique aesthetic of a DomesticBamboo hand-made set of wind chimes, where the beauty hidden within the natural bamboo pops out and captures your attention, a one-of-kind piece of art. Yet somehow it’s familiar, warm and grounding, organic and earthy like a dear old friend. It’s something you’ll only get with a carefully crafted set of DomesticBamboo wind chimes.