Sunday, April 15, 2012

Making A Mobile


The challenge this week for Laura McHugh East and me was to make mobiles. The gentle wind is out and for some reason I was dreaming of mobiles last week, so I had some things all ready.

I’m still sick and not feeling at all like going out, so it was a good challenge again to use only things from around the house.

In my mind, a mobile is an Alexander Calder-like contraption and I was scouring my memory to see if I had any sticks that would work in conjunction with each other but I was not coming up with anything. Then, I spied these two circles on my art cart, that I had saved last week. 


They were the packing separating some frying pans I bought on-line. At the time, they seemed cool because I like circles. Now they seem perfect for the mobile.

I took a drawing I did of some fish and printed it out in different sizes and colors for use on the mobile. I am using embroidery thread to hang the fishies, after I cut them out and mounted them to some cardstock weight paper.




 
I decided to make some kelp, watery wavy elements and a few rocks to add contrast to the mobile. I used the leftover pieces of the fish prints for the othe relements(blue for water, green for kelp).




After giving each element a coating of luscious beeswax, and  without paying too much attention I glued the elements to the inside of the cardboard ring, keeping the kelp and wave elements together. When the glue dried, I added a hanger to hold the whole thing up and hung it to take photos. 



It is a bit challenging to keep the elements from getting all wound up in one another but as long as it is not out in the wind, it seems to hang fine.

This was a really fun challenge - to make something in three dimensions. I think I will give it to my grandson - he would probably like looking up at it. 




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