Autumn is up there as one of my favourite seasons; I love the chill in the air, the changing colours of the trees and wrapping up in my favourite knitted jumpers. But above all of this, it's the autumn crafts that I look forward to. If you feel similarly, then keep reading because you are going to love this (and the next) DIY!
I'm a massive fan of minimal decor and so when I decided to make an autumn mobile (totally inspired by The Lovely Drawer's beautiful baby mobile) I knew I didn't want to use too many colours or materials. I love it when autumn leaves start to become transparent and all that's left is their skeleton, so with this in mind I made this really subtle and minimal autumn wire leaves mobile. It was pretty tricky to photograph, mainly because the lighting in my flat at this time of year is awful and most of the walls are yellow, but hopefully you get the idea. Keep reading to find out what I used and how I made it...
1.
First of all, you'll want to draw an outline of a leaf to use as a template on a piece of card. Next, push a pin through the stem of the leaf template to create a hole.
2.
Push the jewellery wire through this hole and secure it on the other side with tape. Next, use your hands and pliers to bend the wire to match the template.
3.
When you've gone all the way around the leaf template, cut off the excess wire, leaving enough to create a stem. Remove the tape and pull the wire out of the hole so that the wire leaf is separate from the template.
4.
Next, cross the ends of the wire over one another and twist them together to secure your wire leaf. Use the cutters to trim this to approximately 1cm in length and then use round-nose pliers to create a loop in the stem. I decided to make different shaped leaves and a total of 15 wire leaves all together.
5.
Next, take your skewers and cut them so that you have 6 x 10cm lengths. Using the hot glue gun, stick 2 together at a time so that the interior angle is approximately 120 degrees.
6.
You'll then need to use the hot glue gun to stick these three structures together to create a hexagon. Again, you want to stick the ends together at a 120 degree angle. Use as much glue as you need to make sure this is nice and study.
7.
Next, spray paint the hexagon shape in whatever colour takes your fancy. When this is dry, cut three lengths of cotton thread (18cm) and tie these to alternating corners of the hexagon.
8.
Tie these together in the middle of the hexagon. Using the cutters, cut off a short length of wire and loop this round a pen. Secure the ends together by twisting them and tie this to the cotton thread with a knot.
9.
Next, tie several leaves together using thread so that you have 6 lengths of thread with leaves spread along them. I created three lengths of thread with 3 leaves on and three lengths of thread with 2 leaves on them.
10.
Finally, tie these lengths to the corners of the wooden hexagon shape alternating between the lengths with 3 leaves on and 2 leaves on as you go around. To make these nice and secure, add a dab of hot glue to the knot.
