Use your artistic creativity to design and construct a mobile.
Alexander Calder is only one of the many artists who created kinetic or movable artistic displays that are hung as mobiles. Although a majority of his creations were hung from the ceiling, he also created standing mobiles as home decorations. With some craft supplies, you can construct your own hanging art mobile for your living room, bedroom or hallway area.
Instructions
1. Run 2 inches of water into your kitchen sink and soak six 1/4-inch-wide and 1-foot long and one 1/2-inch-wide, 1 1/2-foot-long wooden dowel rods into the water for 15-to-30 minutes. Weave the wet rods between chair rungs or a stairway banister to create a bent effect on the dowels. Leave them in place overnight or until they have dried completely.
2. Line up all seven of the slightly curved dowel rods together and draw a line on each of them approximately four inches from the right end. Line them up so that the right end of one dowel is touching the previously-made mark on the dowel rod before it. The 1/2-inch wide dowel rod's left end touches the mark on the sixth 1/4-inch dowel rod for balance and contains a mark 4-inches from the left end of the dowel.
3. Make an "X" on the left end of each of the six thinner dowel rods where the clay art piece will hang.
4. Drill a very small hole, using your rotary tool drill bit, in each side of the dowel where you have made the markings and 1/4-inch from the end of the dowel rods as positioned in Step 2.
5. Cut 13 pieces of jewelry wire 2 inches long and thread one snippet of wire through each end hole. Bend the wire to make the ends even and touching. Loop a fishing swivel over the wire and crimp the wire loop tightly over the swivel. Repeat attaching a swivel to each of the other five thin dowel rod ends.
6. Press a 2-inch piece of wire through the drilled holes that are 4-inches from the end of the thin dowel rods and through the opposite end of the fishing swivel from the dowel rod positioned above it as in Step 2. Secure it by crimping the wire with the needle-nose pliers. Secure the very top fishing swivel that is 4-inches from the left end on the 1/2-inch dowel rod to an empty key ring for hanging upon completion.
7. Hang the half-completed mobile from a coat hanger through the key ring so that it is easier to work with while attaching the clay weights. Press balls of clay to each end of the thin dowel rod, beginning with the bottom-most rod, and keep adding to the balls until the dowel is level and even. Add a ball of clay to the open end of the rod that is second from the bottom until it too is level. Repeat with all thin dowel rods. Don't worry about what the clay looks like at this point because you are just trying to level the rods.
8. Take the mobile down and lay it back onto the flat surface. Mold each ball of clay into an artistic design according to your preference. It may be circular, spherical, a cube or even a character shape. Allow the clay to dry overnight on the work surface.
9. Paint the air-dried clay while still on the dowel rods and allow the paint to dry before removing it from the work surface. Use colors that align with the existing decor of the area where the mobile will hang.
10. Test the clay durability by gently pulling on the clay pieces. If one is not secure to the dowel rod, remove it, squeeze some craft glue into the hole of the clay, replace the clay and allow it to dry according to package directions.
11. Install a ceiling hook where you'd like to hang the mobile and place the keyring section over the hook. Ensure the hook is durable and will hold the weight of the mobile to prevent it falling and causing injury.
