Clock Work Mobile

Bits and Pieces

Turns and swings beautifully.

Initial layout stage, flat on the table.

One of the pocket watches still works.  I see it as the heart of the piece.

Piano Mobile

Piano!

This mobile turned out to be a small but absolutely mighty mobile.  It occupies a small space, and yet its delicate nature combined with its ease in turning draws one in over and over.  At times you might swear you hear music.

Chance did a wonderful job hanging this- it is perfectly balanced.  The slightest bit of air movement puts it into motion.

Back To School

A Fishy Situation

These were designed, cut and then hand painted on all sides.  This mobile moves fantastically well.  It is balanced to perform in the slightest of air movement.  Note the little orange fish.  Always someone who prefers to be a little different.  This was just added to our shop.

This isn't new, but we posted new photos today.  Much better than the old ones.

Photographing these is difficult to do since they move- but also they take up space, and getting everything included so one can see them in photos is a hat trick laced with luck.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Balance529

Getting There

The Latest on the Piano Mobile...

A gathering of chairs.  The little green ones were not green when they arrived.  I have painted them to look like fancy stuffed chairs.  I am especially fond of the 2 chairs on top of the piano.  Bent little darlings they are.  They could easily be straightened with some hot water, but I am fond of them as they are.

Chance cleaned the piano and repaired it.  It looks lovely.  This particular vintage miniature has a nice set of bumpy dimensional keys.  There will be at least one more chair added to the configuration.  Next post will have a photo of the completed mobile.

A star is born.

I'm So Excited!

If you opened a box and saw this, would you get excited?

Well, I did.  The piano is an old miniature, as are the chairs.  It is to be the centerpiece in the next mobile that Chance I will be making together.  The first time I saw it,  I also saw a mobile in my mind's eye.  The little piano needs cleaning, and it's back leg needs to be glued- but once it is all polished up and I have assembled all of the chairs we will be ready to begin another piece of moving art.

From a very young age I have been intrigued with the mobile art form.  Calder birthed something wonderful into the world- and into my own tiny world.  I was 8 years old when I discovered this kind of sculpture.  The joy never left me.

I see other artists who do copies of Calder's work- and some of it is quite beautiful.  My creative side is not bent in that direction.  Instead, making a mobile becomes an adventure into the space of play- and play in the best sense of the word.
 As a child we struggled to make the best mud pie. It  took hours sometimes to get it exactly right.  The right twigs, rocks and whatever else seemed important to to make our creation splendorous.  If we were lucky, our parents at least pretended with us and we felt good about that time spent in rapt concentration.

Calder's sense of play is contagious.  That is the one thing I hope we can bring into our art.  I say our art, because I cannot make these without Chance- he is the creative engineer.  We work as a team, and we work well as a team- and again, there is that balance.

AND....

There was another item in that box that made me think...of yet another mobile.

Poor dear to be a bath tub and be so dirty!

You can visit our shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Balance529



Welcome to Balance 529

This blog is dedicated to the art of balanced sculptures.  More specifically, mobiles.

This mobile has been sold and is hanging in a home in Iowa.

We call this mobile The Red Chair.  It started with the 3 white vintage handmade chairs.  They arrived with something else I purchased in an auction on-line.  They had a wonderful feel to them.  I knew as soon as I touched them they were destined for an art piece of some kind.  I did not know what though.  After they spent some time on the shelf in the studio, I started seeing them with worn paint.  They were painted a very solid cream white.  I got out my sanding blocks and went to work.  I did not sand them all the same.  They were all 'worn' differently.

Then I found the red chair, which was not red, but orange.  It was then that it all clicked.  I saw the chairs, floating in the air.  I saw the orange chair as a red chair- and painted it red.  I combed through one of my 'make it' boxes and found some other tiny chairs.

Chance hung these in such a way that the chairs do indeed float.  The mobile moves easily and is continuously a joy to observe. 

You can visit our shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Balance529