How to Make a Driftwood Spinner

It is easy to turn bits of driftwood collected from the beach into a pretty wind spinner for the garden in a few easy step.

It was fun to have the grandkids collect bits of driftwood when we visited the various beaches on our trip to British Columbia.

I had seen a lot of driftwood strung together in a window of a store right before we went away and decided that was another project I wanted to do with the grandkids.  French Beach is one of the many beaches that we visited the the kids would happily find all sorts of small bits of driftwood for me to collect.

I sure wish I had room in my suitcase for some of the wonderful large pieces of driftwood as I would do so much with them in my garden.

A lot of the small pieces of driftwood came from the Esquimalt Lagoon, a favourite place to visit.

It didn’t take long for a nice pile of driftwood to appear, and the best part was it all fit into one of the outside pockets of the suitcase easily.

At home I sorted it into 2 piles and started arranging them in a line, which rather reminded me of a tree with the biggest pieces at the bottom and going up to the smallest pieces at the top.

For this project you need:

• some pieces of driftwood
• fishing line
• a fishing swivel
• a button
• drill

Drill a hole through the centre of each piece of driftwood.

Now it is time to cut a piece of fishing line twice as long as needed plus a bit more for knotting.

Thread the button so that it is in the middle of the fishing line and then carefully poke the two strands of fishing line through each piece of driftwood starting with the bottom piece. The button stops the fishing line from sliding through the holes.  When you get to the last piece knot on a fishing swivel.  This will allow the driftwood spinner to twirl gently in the breeze.  

The next thing I did was turn and alternate the bits of driftwood so they faced in opposite directions.  You could of course leave them flat as in the above photo and see what happens in the breeze.

I like the way the alternating pieces of driftwood give the spinner more dimension.

I made two driftwood spinners to hang on the gazebo or other places in the garden as reminders of the fun times at the beaches on Vancouver Island with the grandkids.

Some other fun crafts I recently made are toonie soap and a garden flag.

I’m sharing with Funky Junk and Creative Crafts.

Unfortunately there was no visit to British Columbia this year due to the covid19 pandemic, but I’m thankfull for all the memories that came flooding back after looking at the many photos taken on previous visits.

Make a twirler/wind spinner

• conch shell twirler
• crochet wind spinners, large
• crochet wind spinners, small
• driftwood spinners
• pinwheel twirler
• plastic canvas twirler
• pvc twirler
• spiral twirlers