Blowin' and goin'...
So, there I was a few years ago, perusing a local garden center, looking for nothing in particular — except maybe to confirm that what the "industry experts" suggested was popular was, indeed, popular. After a few minutes, a store employee came over. "Can I help you find something?," she asked. "Yes, you can," I answered. "I'm looking for your chime department." She mentioned that it was in the corner, then signaled for me to follow. I did, and in an instant I found myself surrounded by boxes upon boxes of chimes. "Here it is," she said. "Just let me know if you need anything else." Looking the section over, I suddenly was inspired to need something else. "Ma'am," I said, "don't you think you would sell more chimes if you took them out of the boxes and let them, like, make a chime sound?" She gave me a brief head shake. "No, we tried that. It was very annoying to the staff." Oh, did I mention that this store is no longer in business?
Chimes, and wind art of all varieties, sell a lot better when you let them sell themselves. That means letting them chime or dance in the breeze — your staff's delicate sensitivities be darned. OK, end of sermon. Let's check out some great wind art "museums." If you want to get a feel for what's out there in the wind chime world, few Web sites carry the variety displayed at Wind Chimes Pavilion, where more than 350 models are there for the browsing. Of course, chimes are just one facet of the grander genre, wind art, which can include flags, banners, spinners and one of our favorites, kinetic garden structures, such as those offered by Exhart. Mom Youngblood is especially geeked by the company's Geeky Beek line. And don't even get her started talking about the flags offered by New Creative. You'll be listening to her rave all day. Instead, I would suggest checking out the rest of these GCP&S e-Zone features (he said, hoping you wouldn't notice what a cheesy segue that was)...
