Thursday, March 7, 2013

Wind Mobile

One of my recent projects is a wind mobile.  It doesn't really chime, so mobile it is!  I made this mobile for my family reunion where we are a bit obsessed with chickens - hence the two chicken beads at the bottom.  They are actually bells.  So cute!




I first made the long strands with fishing line.  I started with the bottom bead and strung it on one line to the middle.  Then I strung the next bead down both ends of the strands so that I was now stringing along two strands which also secures the bottom bead nicely.  I put clear and brown beads in a random pattern to make five strands that are about 10 inches long.

The 'core' of my mobile is a wire circle piece that I was able to tie strands onto in the middle as well as along the side.  I picked it up in the garden section of my local craft store one spring.  Any shape piece will work as long as you can tie things to it.  I chose a metal that will not rust since it is meant to be outside.  Be creative if you are making one for yourself.  Mobiles do not have to hang on a circle, try a square and see how it looks!

After I tied the long strands off I secured them with my glue gun - low heat so you don't melt the fishing line.  I thought it needed something else so I cut strips of white pearl colored beads that were already stranded and also white ribbon.  I hot glued the strips along the edges and trimmed them to one length for each row.  I have the pearl beads longer than the ribbons.  

Next, I hung ribbon along three points along the top to create the hanger.  I tied a knot in the middle with a loop to hang from.  It still did not look complete so I took some outdoor fabric and cut it into strips and glued it along the top.  This finished the piece off nicely.  

I was going to do a more step to step guide with pictures, but the process was  not very neat.  I did a lot of trial and error to get to the finished product.

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