This mobile life

For whatever reason, I've always liked mobiles. And I became especially fascinated with them a number of years ago after seeing a spectacular Alexander Calder retrospective at the SF MoMA.

I have one very cool abstract mobile that my sister gave me (via her former neighbor, who used to work at a shop that sold them) which hangs in the corner of my bedroom and reminds me a little of a school of coy. I also have a goofy one of colorful construction paper spheres that I tediously glued together from a kit.

Truly interesting ones are surprisingly expensive, and even though I don't really have places to hang any more, I got to thinking of ways to make my own after the kit. I don't really have a good workspace or the tools or supplies to do anything interesting, so never really put anything together.

But a few weeks ago, while staring at my orchid wall in the back room and wondering what to do with my growing collection of epiphytes and interesting lichen-covered sticks that filled the space between recuperating flower plants, I had a flash of inspiration.

I got out the kite string, hot-glue gun, peat moss, wire and fishing line, and proceeded to make a horrific mess of bark and moss and grit and bugs. And after a little trial-and-error learning curve, I ended up with what you see in the two pictures here, hanging in the window in the airy back room, swinging in the breeze of the windows that won't close completely. Unfortunately it's a little too large to capture well in a photo, not to mention that it's difficult to capture the form since it's always changing, but you get the idea. You'll just have to trust me that it's a little less Blair Witch and slightly more elegant than these photos might suggest.

I played around more with balancing the individual branches in surprising ways than I did with working out the dimensions, so the unfortunate result is that some of the branches bonk into each other as they spin around, taking away a little from the neat fluid motion of the whole. Also, the balance changes considerably when I water it, and I'm sure it will shift as the plants grow and take root on the branches. But I worked out a system of wire loops and strings with clasps so that I can take it apart and rebalance as necessary.

Anyway, it's not bad for a first attempt, and it certainly scratched my craft itch. If only I had a little more room, a reliable air plant supplier, and a completely legal way to collect the lichen-covered wood pieces, I'd be ready to start taking orders.