NATCHEZ — Listen closely, you may hear music in the air. Look closely you will notice a quite unusual wind chime melodically dancing in the wind.

Selma Fortenberry creates one of a kind wind chimes out of flattened glass bottles. Fortenberry first got started making cheese trays from flattened wine bottles.

“I got information from a friend in Jackson about how to make the cheese trays.” Fortenberry said.

“I just figured I would try Coke bottles.”

Since that revelation, she has been creating wind chimes as gifts for friends and family.

“I guess I’ve made hundreds, I don’t know,” Fortenberry said.

She makes these works of art at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Natchez. Along with the wind chimes, she also makes ceramics. Fortenberry incorporates both mediums in her designs.

When first starting out, she would use beer bottles she picked up off of the road or that friends would donate.

“Different people know I do this, and they bring them to me,” Fortenberry said. Then, about a year ago, she started using glass Coke bottles.

“Byron’s Drug Store has a Coke machine and he gives me the bottles,” Fortenberry said.

In return, she makes wind chimes for the store.

“Every once in a while, Coke makes commemorative bottles,” she said.

“Those are my favorites. Some of them, I have even bought.”

Fortenberry estimates that each wind chime takes approximately three days to make. This includes three hours in the kiln and time to add decals and make the ceramic clingers that go with the flattened bottles. The bottles are generally the center of the chime and the ceramics make up the other components.

“Most of them sound like an old fashioned cow bell,” Fortenberry points out.

Since starting this craft, she has added her own special touches to each chime. Decals are added to make each piece special.

“I buy decals from a ceramics shop in Baton Rouge,” she said.

“The decal has to be applied at least 24 hours before the bottle is fired in the kiln.”

Fortenberry mostly gives her art away as gifts, but she does admit to having about six at her house.