Mobiles and wind chimes can brighten up your garden, patio, or a bare corner of your living room. And you probably have the stuff to make one right now!
Here are some unexpected objects you can use to make your own.
1. Wooden Discs
Emily Neuburger’s Simple Color Mobile could work inside or outside. I like the simplicity of the rainbow-colored circles, but you could also add a wooden initial or other shape.
(Side note: You know the wood-stuff-for-painting aisle in the craft store? I always have to browse through it, and, even though I don’t usually do wood craft projects, I always kind of want to buy everything in there.)
2. Souvenirs
Justina Blakeney made this Boho Mobile from an old lamp shade frame and small decorative items her in-laws brought back from India. If you have a lot of little knick knacks from trips taking up shelf space, this would be another way to display them. Like an oversized charm bracelet.
3. Paint Swatches
Love this minimal Paint Swatch Mobile from Natalme! You can mix up the colors like she did or use a gradient of shades for an ombre or rainbow effect, which would look especially rad spinning around.
4. Embroidery Hoops
Another Natalme inspiration: turn embroidery hoops into a place to hold photos (or holiday cards or kids’ artwork)!
5. Clay and Copper Pipes
Decorative ceramic bells made from Sculpey by A Beautiful Mess. Apparently, these are purely decorative, since they don’t actually ring. I’m wondering whether you could change that with some metal inside the clay. Or what if you hung more than one copper pipe from each bell, making every bell into kind of a mini-wind-chime?
6. Sea Glass
Crafts Unleashed has a turorial for displaying your beach-combing finds as sea glass wind chimes!
7. House Keys
You can also make a wind chime from old keys, like this one from Inner Child Fun.
FYI I found this on a list by The Garden Glove (with about a dozen more DIY ideas).
8. Bottle Caps
Trina Lyn (of Trina Is Artsy Fartsy) shared this tutorial of how to make a bottle cap wind chime, as frequently seen – but not always explained – on Pinterest.
9. Random Junk
Trina also combined a variety of found objects, including a smashed vintage beer can, into The Junk Windchime. It brings together a lot of the materials in the other projects above, like bottle caps, glass, beads, and a key.
What materials would you use for a mobile creation? Chime in!
For Your Inspiration
A few more shareworthy (and shoppable) mobiles and wind chimes:
- Metal and 3D-printed art mobiles by Hidden in the Hills artist Kevin Caron.
- Wooden Songbirds Mobile.
- Recycled glass bottle wind chimes on Etsy.
- Ceramic Moon Wind Chimes on Etsy.
- Gold mobile (above), which looks great against Happy Mundane’s teal wall.
Photos via their respective sites.
I really liked it when you posted a picture of a wind chime using old keys. I can agree with you if you say that it is cute because it is, and the different colors just added to the fun element. I would like to have something like that in the garden, though I am not sure if I can buy something like that from a store. It’s not like I am artistic enough to make one myself. Hopefully, I can get one of a similar nature since my garden’s theme is “kiddie.”
I just remembered a mobile I made from this tutorial http://smileandwave.typepad.com/blog/2012/05/arrow-mobile-diy.html, easy peasy and since we had tons of those wood shims leftover from the previous owners of our house, I was able to make it without leaving the house.
That’s really cool! Thanks for sharing!
Great ideas! I saw a similar one for keys years ago, and always wanted to try it. Maybe I’ll finally get around to it this year. Thanks for the great suggestions!
Yeah! I hope you can give it a try! That one is great, because you can make it as simple as you want. You could skip the painting and leave the keys metallic-looking and/or wrap yarn or thread around the branch for more color. Can’t wait to see how yours turns out!