Pet Tag Memorial Wind Chimes

Let's Build a Pet Memorial Site!

Recently, I announced that I’m forming a nonprofit organization where we will build a large pet memorial site / tourist attraction. This will be a one-of-a-kind site where families will be able to memorialize their dogs, cats, birds, horses (or any type of companion animal) and/or human family members who loved animals but have passed away.

If you missed the two posts where I wrote about this memorial site and what it will look like, you can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

There are so many things that need to be decided when building a pet memorial site. This is where I need help! I will need feedback from subscribers on the various displays, monuments, artwork and memorials that we will create to honor both companion animals and people. One of the first issues that I want feedback on is the idea of creating memorial wind chimes out of dog and cat identification tags.

I have never made wind chimes myself. I have never even created “art” in my adult life. My only experience with creating something artistic was the crummy crafts I made in my junior high and high school art classes. But don’t worry, I personally won’t create these wind chimes. I will train volunteers who’ll make them.

My first question is this: do you think the tags look better kept in their original condition (PHOTO “A”) where they are UNPAINTED. Many of these are metal in various colors but they are not painted. And rabies tags will most likely be silver in color.

PHOTO A: colored metal dog and cat ID tags in their original (unpainted) state.

Or, do you like the idea of our PAINTING the pet tags (PHOTO “B” below) so that we have more vibrant colors and to protect the metals that will live outside in the wet climate? Painting them MIGHT meant that what is engraved on the tags won’t be readable (I won’t know until we test out paint on them).

I am not even sure if pet tags (unpainted or painted) will survive the elements outdoors. Will they rust? If we don’t paint them, should we use some type of clear coat on them to ensure that they don’t get damaged in our rainy weather and salt water environment here on Vancouver Island?

PHOTO B: Pet tags that have been painted.

The wind chimes we create will hang in our memorial gardens and also in the forest on the cedar, spruce, western pine, and fir trees that will line the dirt paths of our memorial forest walk (more on what that will look like later in a future post). We want to make sure the wind chimes will make noise in the wind. We will likely craft many sets of wind chimes initially to test out how they will sound, how they hold up in strong winds (i.e. will the fishing line get tangled up) and what type of paint (if any) works best.

Also, besides colorful beads, what other artful things could we include on the wind chimes? I like the looks of the beads on PHOTO “C” (below) but I don’t think the way these were created that they would make much noise if hung outside due to the large number of beads. But is there something else besides fishing line, beads, and tags that we can use?

PHOTO C: Beautiful display of pet tags using color beads, but these are likely more decorative than useful to make wind chime noise outdoors.

So what do you think? Please share your ideas in the comments below.