I'm a Mobile Making Machine...

Hi Everyone,

A few weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of attending Morrisburg 2012.  I wrote about it earlier before I posted the tutorial on my blog for my Magic Glow Lentil beads.

Anyhow, one of the classes that we learned was how to make mobiles.  Margi participates in the One of a Kind craft show and had won first place for her interpretation of the word "Umbrella".  She did so with a mobile.  We're very fortunate that Margi is one of the coordinators of Morrisburg and is generous with her knowledge, including how to make these.

I love mobiles and hers swayed so gently that I knew that I wanted to try one.  But what to make?  Then it hit me - one of my friends at work is having a baby boy very shortly.  She loves hand made gifts and I knew that she'd like something that I had made.  Because it was a boy, I knew that the primary colours would work, with the added bonus that I didn't have to think too much about colours. 

The result is below.  Homi was thrilled and has this mobile hanging over her head in her cubicle, where, as she says, "I like letting the positive words rain down on me during the day".  I don't think I've ever received higher praise. 

I did have a word stamp for "escape" but I thought that it might not be appropriate for a child in a crib.  Instead I settled for "explore".  The hardest part for me was the antiquing of the stamped words - I'm not very adept at it and thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which does a pretty good job at removing most of what needs to be removed.  Each piece is textured differently.  You can ignore the one upside down word, that was before I glued the mobiles into place.  It's probably best to click on the pictures to see the detail.

Another woman at work saw what I had done (actually the whole office has seen Homi's gift) and asked if I would make one for her 20 year old daughter.  It's much harder to do work for someone that I don't know, but we settled on a smaller version with pinks and purples.

Here's the second mobile.  This one was wired twice.  The first time it was too gangly and made me think of an insect.  I was much happier with the second attempt and Linda liked it so much she bought it without hesitation.  Her daughter was apparently thrilled at it so bonus there.

But, like the first one, I really hated the antiquing of the words.  I have to find an easier way.  The words come from the unfortunately now defunct "Impress It" textures and are the Bottles of Hope words, but there are still some available if you'd like to purchase them through Shades of Clay here.

Leigh, another friend at work, stopped by after seeing Linda's and asked for one - she left it up to my discretion with the only caveat that she wanted purple.  Purple is my least favourite colour so that was a bit of a stretch.  But, I had scrap clay left over from Linda's project above so I used that as the basis of the flowers that I wanted to try for someone else. 

Leigh has seen a teeny picture of it and says absolutely that she wants it.  So that's nice.

This one went together much more quickly and easily.  Hanging was pretty much a breeze and all in all it probably took about 4 or five hours to do.  This time I inked the words on a stamp pad and pressed them into the clay, so much easier than antiquing.  And I only did three of them.

One of my best friends is coming home after being away for four months and I'd like to have one hanging in her cubicle when she gets back so that's at least one more.  It'll be similar to the flower one above since she loves flowers, but it probably won't have purple, or who knows, maybe it will.

I'm starting to feel a bit guilty that I haven't done anything for my sister's kids so I may make a few more for them. 

I'm very much enjoying these.

Cheers,

Sandy