Production

We're working like mad this month to provide an exclusive line of mobiles to Design Within Reach. Here's a sneak peek at our production line:

Mobile at Home

If you scroll back to May 26, you'll see a mobile we commissioned for a private residence in California. We just received photos of our mobile installed in the very lovely home!

Chande-Mobile

And yet another project in our queue: This will be a 12-foot tall by 8-foot wide chandelier-like mobile made of more than 300 individual dangling pieces. It will hang from the stairwell of a St. Louis-based law firm.

Logo-Based Stabiles

Here's a fun little project we just completed for a company in Connecticut. The project included a set of stabiles incorporating elements from the company's logo. The stabiles will reside in niches on either side of a long entryway in the company's headquarters. The stabile pictured on the left sways with the slightest air current, so it should have plenty of action from the breeze of passersby.

Columbus Art Museum: Finished!

Well, everything is finished on the interactive stabiles for the Columbus Art Museum. The shapes are cut, the arms are bent, and the bases are back from the powder coater:

Of course, we had to test the whole thing to make sure everything balanced properly. And of course, we went overboard and hung every single arm and shape from the ceiling of a nearby vacant office. And we may or may not have squandered an entire afternoon playing with it...

Bottom line, it's a lot of fun*. Which bodes well for the patrons of the Columbus Art Museum.

*especially for a couple of mobile-making geeks

Copper, Brass, Steel

Here's a mobile we recently sent off to a private residence in California:

It's based on a mobile we made for the HGTV's Divine Design (See April 24, 2008), but includes a mix of copper, brass, and stainless-steel shapes. The bottoms of the shapes are bushed, and the tops are polished so the varying colors will reflect nicely on the ceilings. (And don't worry, the client's ceilings will be much prettier than our shop ceilings!) The entire mobile hangs 20" wide by 60" tall.

Columbus Art Museum: The Shapes

We're making good progress on the interactive stabiles for the Columbus Art Museum we mentioned last month. Ben, our in-house industrial designer and materials aficionado, found the best-ever material for the shapes: polyethylene, a colorful heavy duty plastic normally used on playground equipment that's fade resistant, crack resistant, and practically indestructible. Perfect for the beating we expect (or hope!?) these stabiles will take!

Here's a rendering of the shapes:

And here are (a portion of) the actual shapes:

Also in the Queue

Here's another project in our queue:

This piece will hang from the decorative recessed ceiling in the lobby of an orthopedic clinic in York, Pennsylvania. It will hang 16 feet wide by 14 feet tall.

And yes, it's shaping up to be a very busy fall.

Gateway Church

Here's the newest project in our queue: a 40-foot long piece that will hang in a newly completed church in Dallas. The structure will include 22 individual pieces, each about 4 feet long by 1.5 feet wide.

Here's the rendering:

As an interesting side note, this particular client came across us when he saw one of our early commissions, which hangs in a rec center in Saginaw, Texas. It's mind boggling to think how much we've learned since that particular project. Needless to say, we're excited to work on this!