Mobiles can be a quick and easy craft for almost anyone and there are an infinite number of variations that can be made on the same theme to make a mobile that is new and refreshing. Mobiles can be very complicated to make and can involve using the highest quality materials and custom made equipment or they can be very simple and easy to make out of ordinary things. Here is some more information on making them quick and easy.
First of all, you will need to gather some supplies to make your mobile. Having a general idea of what you want to make is a good first step to take. This will allow you to make the most educated decisions about what supplies you may need in addition to the standard materials. The basic framework for your mobile will be a few wire clothes hangers. These are very common and can be purchased quite inexpensively. Many dry cleaners would probably give you a few if you asked them. The hangers are the basic frame from which all the other parts of the mobile will hang. In addition to the hangers, you’ll also need a paper and printer (for pictures), scissors, a stapler, string or floss, markers, crayons or colored pencils, and wire cutters. The first step is to find some pictures on the internet or on your computer that you think would be a good theme for your mobile. You may also have some drawing skills that will allow you to draw them freehand or on the computer before they are printed. Be sure that the shapes you will be printing are the right size for the mobile you are making.
Print the shapes or figures you plan on using so that you can color them. You may be able to find patterns that will be three dimensional after they are printed, but this could make the project more time consuming or difficult. Color and cut out the shapes you are going to use. You can make them three dimensional by putting tow shapes together and then stapling them together with a little of the leftover paper stuffed in between the pieces. When you are satisfied with the shape of your figures, staple a piece of string about 1 foot long to each whale. You can change the length of the string to give it more variety when it is actually attached to the mobile. With the help of an adult, cut two lengths of wire about a foot long from the hangers you have. Make loops at each end of the wire pieces to hang the figures from. You want to make sure that there aren’t any sharp edges on the wires and that they can safely be handled by anyone who is working on them. With the pliers, make a loop in the middle of one of the lengths of wire and thread the other piece through it. Also make a loop in the second wire which will entwine the two pieces together.
When you have the two pieces of wire attached to each other and well balanced, then you can tie the strings from each of the figures to the loops you made on each end of the wires. This pattern will give you four different figures for your mobile. You can choose to make any variation on this and add more figures to your mobile. Of course there is a point when there are too many, but the same idea applies no matter how many you will be making. You can add more variation to the mobile by varying the length of the strings that attach the figures to the wires or change the way the wires are bent or balanced to fit more figures.
Leave a Reply