Lowe's has rain chains for $25 - nice ones too.

How about something like lamp cord or speaker wire, the kind that's coated with a neutral color vinyl...which you could then crochet into a loose chain. Might be kind of weird looking until the vines covered it, but the price would be right!

Scroll down to #14 on the page linked to below...

Here is a link that might be useful: speaker wire

Thank you both for your input. I've searched and searched online at Lowe's site and can find no mention of rain chains but I will pay a personal visit this weekend to see if our local store has them. Am hoping it's not a regional inventory issue whereby they carry them in your area but not mine. And I think the speaker wire idea is quite creative! Flexible enough to form into an interesting chain and very durable. And now that you've got me thinking in that direction, I suppose I could always macrame a chain using a thin nylon rope. (If I go in that direction I'll let you know how it works out by posting a photo.) Thanks!

How about using thin copper/metal tubing and bending it into whatever shape you like ? I have seen it bent into a long spiral, then you can stick it in the ground next to your window/trellis, and the vine will twine up the spiral until it reaches whatever you want to train it onto. You could buy a piece of PVC pipe in the diameter you want your spirals to be, then find metal tubing soft enough to bend around the PVC pipe to your desired height. The copper is pretty soft and will develop that nice verdigris patina if left uncoated in the outdoors. You just need to leave a straight piece at the bottom for sticking in the dirt.. Or make a few of varying heights and cluster them together ( to mimic a stand of bamboo kind-of) then the vines will have more support at the bottom too. Just a thought !