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Home > Arts and Crafts Projects > Mobile Crafts >How to Make Mobiles
A mobile is a suitable decoration for almost any event, with the decorations following the theme of the occasion. Although it is possible for each child to make his own mobile, as a starter it is best suited as a group project, with every child handling some part of it. All can take part in balancing, and in making decorations for one.
Mobile decorations can be made from almost any material; cardboard, wood, tin can pieces, assorted sheet metal, hardboard, paper, or even scraps of leather. This one uses cardboard.
for the wooden armatures:
glue
needle
pin
scissors
thread
wooden sticks
For the decorations:
cardboard
crayons
paints, and
scissors
The principles of constructing a mobile are simple. First, a mobile is built from the bottom up, like a house, and second, each set of decorations is balanced before being added to the whole. Whatever the decorations of the mobile may be, they should be of similar materials, or of about the same weight. That is, do not mix paper and heavy wood, or the whole effect will be lopsided, even though it may be technically balanced.
For this mobile, cut fish shapes out of cardboard, using either conventional or fanciful fish designs. Color with paints or crayons, and add features like eyes and fins.
To balance the fish, poke a pin in what you think is about the middle, and loop a thread around this. Through trial and error, you will find the balance point. When you find it, thread a needle and punch through this spot, and make a thread loop in the fish.
When two fish have been made, colored and balanced, tie each to the opposite ends of a stick, with other threads. To find the balance of this element, loop a string around the middle of the stick and hold the other end of the string with the fingers. Shift the string until it balances. Drop a bit of glue on the string to fix it in place on the stick.
That is the basic component of the mobile. Keep making as many elements as you wish, and in turn, balance them.