I've made a couple of large mobile's this month. It started out as one mobile' but it didn't look right so, I made two mobile's instead. The first is #54 not shown here. The second was this one shown above. It is a little over three feet tall and about eight feet long. All the rods are steel, painted black. The base is a maple tree branch. The other wooden elements are assorted wood species: eucalyptus, western maple, silver maple, cedar and plum. All the wood is stained the same color for consistency.
I like to set up the large mobile's in my backyard for a week or so to see how they will behave. If there are any flaws in the design or construction, nature will expose them. This one worked beautifully from the first set-up and lasted the week without any tweaks or repairs. I thought, "OK, time to finish it of with a coat of paint on the steel and I'll do that right now." I turned to walk out the back door and this is what I saw.
That's a twenty foot long maple branch that broke off the tree the mobile' was under. That green stuff is mistletoe, which is really heavy. That's why the branch broke. It completely smashed the mobile'. Luckily, it didn't break the base. I was able to rebuilt this mobile' in a couple of days. It's now on a pedestal in my front yard. It looks great and is beautiful to watch. It is for sale if you're interested.
You can see all my mobile's on my art web site: http://www.tesserak.net/html/mobiles.htm
Here's a video clip of the mobile the day before it was crushed.
