As the data reporter at Louisville Public Media, I’m always requesting and sorting through data for story ideas. Spreadsheets, maps, databases — all are ripe for stories if you’re creative. That’s how I started down the wind chime rabbit hole.
A few weeks ago, when I was looking through data from the Kentucky State Fair, I noticed something a little odd. I compared it to the fair’s premium book, basically the “bible” for all the competitions at the fair.
There were two new contests that weren’t there last year. One was wind chimes.
“We also added sourdough,” said Paige Dupin, entry manager at the Kentucky State Fair. “I’m sure we all know sourdough is a big thing right now so we thought that was kind of a no brainer.”
Contests at the Kentucky State Fair don’t just happen — they’re created. I was curious exactly what that process is like.
Dupin manages the contests and says they’ve gotten some ideas from an industry group called the International Association of Fairs and Expos.
“At one of those meetings, we talked about charcuterie board competitions,” Dupin said. “And so I think that's going to be a great one to add next year.”
Dupin said they also get a lot of ideas from people emailing them. Some of them are kind of weird and specific — like one request for “crushed spicy tomatoes.” All in all, she says they’re pretty game for whatever contest they think will bring folks to the fair.
I wanted to find out what it’s like to enter one of these contests. I’m not a great baker, so sourdough was out. Wind chimes were in.
Like all projects, the first step was gathering supplies. I went out to Keith’s Hardware on Bardstown Road. I knew I needed some pipe, but had no idea what kind.
Luckily, store employee Caroline Cabezas knew exactly what I needed. She recommended copper pipe. She said it’s not the first wind chime she’s had a hand in making. I asked all sorts of ridiculous questions and I figured maybe I could learn from her past customers.
“What kind of questions are they asking that I should be asking?” I plied her.
“Pretty similar ones, but typically we’re thinking about materials, lengths, how we are going to drill it, how we are going to hang it, figuring out some kind of ring for it, all that kind of stuff,” Cabezas said.
Five feet of copper pipe and a $32 dent in my wallet, I grabbed a pipe cutter and got to work.
In a nod to LPM, I knew I wanted to use the pitches in our hourly station identification clip.
I went to this encyclopedic website that tells you the lengths you need to cut pipes to achieve a certain pitch. But trust me, it’s not as easy as it sounds. (Pun intended.)
For about two hours, I hung pipes and hit them with a metal rod, comparing it to the pitches on my piano. They were never quite right. As I kept cutting my pipes shorter and shorter, I had to adjust the musical key ever upwards.
Finally, I got somewhat close and called it a day.
I drilled holes in the copper pipe to hang the string from. Then I cut a circle out of a scrap piece of wood in my shed and sanded it smooth to hang the pipes from.
I also needed a striker — the piece that dangles between pipes to hit the chimes. I thought it would be cool to string up a piece of coal I found one day. Surely the judges would appreciate that nod to Kentucky right?
Finally I made a small stained glass panel to look like the Louisville Public Media logo and hung it from the bottom to catch the wind.
I strung it all together with some old fishing line and viola — a public radio wind chime!
Entries in the state fair have to be submitted the weekend before the fair opens. I went to drop off my chimes at the exhibit hall, joining a sea of hundreds of other crafters. Clanging up to a desk with wind chimes in hand, who do I see but Paige Dupin.
“Is this the wind chime?” she asked. I showed them off.
“Awesome!” Dupin said. “That’s really nice!”
After handing me an entry ticket she sent me over to the Hobbies room. There I met a woman named Brenda — all the workers told me I had her to thank for creating the wind chime contest. It kind of feels like meeting the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz.
“I’m not the wizard,” Brenda said, shrugging. “It’s not difficult, they just gave me the reins. They had to approve it.”
While we were talking, a sound started echoing down the hallway. At first it was a tinkle. Then a jingle. The closer the sound got, the louder the din of clanging metal.
It was Eileen O’Connor dropping off her windchime: an enormous silver candelabra with an entire silverware drawer of spoons and forks dangling from it. She sells chimes at craft fairs under the name “One of a Chime.” She couldn’t wait to enter the new contest.
“I’ve been waiting for years!” O’Connor said. “Because that’s what I make, I don’t paint, I don’t crochet, I don’t do any of that stuff but I make wind chimes.”
Just like me, O'Connor just wanted a little competition and a chance to show off her projects.
“May the best man win,” I told her and, laughing, we shook on it.
In the end, the best man did win — O’Connor is the best-in-show winner of the inaugural Kentucky State Fair wind chime competition.
