Just about a year ago I posted about my first stained glass mobiles, and mentioned that I’d made 2 more that same week and would post about them soon. Well, a year later, and here we go! I’m trying to clear out my draft folder before the year ends, and get caught up with posting about all the projects I never posted about…
I gave you a sneak peak of my 2 new mobiles at the bottom of my 2018 Projects page, but never wrote about them:
I love them! And I plan to make more. I was hoping to have some made for this Christmas, but that didn’t happen.
So last December I picked colors for the mobiles, used my circle templates, glass cutter, and glass grinder to produce 6 circles – 2 large, 2 medium, & 2 small. In the 2nd photo you can see I’ve already copper foiled the edges, so they are ready for solder:
I knew from my first mobiles that I needed 3 rings between each circle: 2 stationary ones and 1 in the middle. Otherwise the pieces won’t hang straight. I decided to use a random cat pencil to create rings, because it was the right circumference. I wrapped my pre-tinned copper wire [copper wire tinted with a thin layer of tin, ready for solder] around the pencil:
Then used wire snippers to cut it off the pencil. It looked like a spring:
Then I snipped off each ring and used pliers to flatten them out into rings:
I soldered the edges of each circle, then attached the rings. For the middle pieces I needed a ring on each end, so I marked with a Sharpie where they should go, then soldered them on:
Tip: always hold the rings with needle-nosed pliers while soldering because they heat up to 400° in mere seconds. I use a block of wood to hold my circles upright while I solder rings onto the ends:
Once the rings were on, I washed my circles, then used needle nosed pliers to attach the center rings, linking the circles into mobiles:
The red and yellow one hangs in the bedroom & the purple-ly one hangs in the living room:
I also soldered some rings onto 2 small green circles and gave them to friends last year for Christmas:
Just beautiful! Love’em ❤️
Thanks, Dad!
These mobiles are wonderful and you have the perfect windows to showcase them! Love the color combinations – they’re beautiful.
Thanks!
Ooh — I LOVE the green ones! They look like they’re made of gemstones. Green is my favorite color. I would totally buy these if I found them at an art fair. Just sayin’ …
Thanks! Well, if you ever wanted to PM me your address maybe Santa would send you one 🙂 Or next time you and Eric drive by my house stop in and I can give you one in person 😉