One is Silver, and the Other's Gold

Full disclosure: these mobiles are actually brushed aluminum and brushed copper. But we couldn’t help thinking of that old camp tune, “Make New Friends,” because this project entailed revisiting an old design and creating an all-new one.

The project included six 4-feet tall mobiles for a designer we frequently work with. She’s planning to hang them in small decorative niches at a newly completed hospital.

Below are images of two of the six mobiles we made. We did three designs total, half in brushed aluminum and half in brushed copper. The first image was based on Silver Forest, a piece we designed a few years back for an ultra-modern cabin in North Carolina. The next image is a new design we came up with just for this project.

And we still can’t decide which we enjoy more–revisiting old designs or creating all-new ones. Eh, it’s all fun.

Chicago Mobile

Here’s a mobile we recently sent off for a client’s home in Chicago. This piece hangs about 12 feet wide by 4 feet long. We still haven’t come up with a name for this mobile. Any suggestions?

(We can’t wait to see pictures of this in the client’s home, because our shop doesn’t really make the nicest backdrop!)

Methodist Children's Hospital Mobile

Whew. We’re happy to report that the mobile for the Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio is finally complete!

Everything (eventually) arrived safely, although one pallet went temporarily AWOLsomewhere between Portland and Albuquerque. Fortunately, the freight company found it and got it to San Antonio just in time for the install. (Phew!)

Matt, who apparently works well under pressure (and sleep deprivation), worked more than 36 hours straight getting everything installed just right. Such a perfectionist.

The piece includes three total structures: one 10-foot diameter cluster of acrylic shapes and two identical 8-feet tall by 10-feet wide structures made of acrylic shapes on an aluminum frame. All three pieces hang in the newly remodeled hospital’s lobby.

Check out the final result:

San Antonio or Bust

Here are the pallets we just shipped off to San Antonio for the children's hospital mobile. Now we're just praying everything arrives in one piece... The installation is next week, so stay tuned!

Sisters

We recently finished a set of mobiles for the lobby of a real estate company’s Washington D.C. offices. The client requested “sister” mobiles–as in similar, but not identical. So we incorporated a similar structure and colors in both mobiles but added variety to the individual shapes. Both mobiles hang 8-feet tall by 5-feet wide.

Sneak Peek #2

We’ve made major headway on the children’s hospital mobile we mentioned on February 19. We’re scheduled to install the final piece later this month, so we’re on the home stretch!

Here’s one part of the mobile hanging in our workshop:

Back to School

More than a year ago, Matt was brought into a local middle school to help teach the curriculum on systems. Mobiles, of course, were the perfect object lesson: it’s a set of parts working together to create a complex whole.

So Matt spent several weeks helping the 8th graders design, create, and assemble four large mobiles that now hang in the school’s cafeteria. It was a rewarding (and, yes, exhausting) endeavor.

Anyhow, we’re just now bringing this up because we finally got our hands on photos of the final product. Check out them out. The school is now full of aspiring mobile makers!

Reflections on Divine Design

One of our very first posts on this blog (April 24, 2008) was about a mobile we did for an HGTV show, Divine Design. We recently had the opportunity to re-make that mobile for a private residence in Virginia. This time, it was brightly colored with a reflective surface on top. You can see how well the mobile reflects onto the ceiling, thanks to some genius lighting the client had installed!

Mosaic at Home

Here’s that mobile we just mentioned–fully installed in its Oklahoma office building!

Mosaic

Check out this piece we just finished up for a musical organization in Oklahoma. The client wanted a whimsical glass-like feel, so we used fun glossy colored acrylic shapes. The mobile hangs 8-feet tall by 8-feet wide. Matt, our head mobile maker, was so happy with this, he ranked it among his favorites! We can’t wait to see it in its final home.