Glimbing Gear Mobile

For my upscaling project, I am going to be making a mobile out of climbing gear.  When I say mobile, I mean like the ones hanging above a babies crib.  In my aesthetic post, I mostly talked about the design of climbing gear and how its changed (or not) over the years.  This gave me the idea to do a mobile where the new climbing gear will balance out the old gear in multiple levels.  I already have all of the modern climbing gear that I am planning on using for the project, but am waiting to grab the old gear this weekend.  My father has a bunch of of climbing gear from the 80’s that I will be grabbing from their house.

Modern Gear(2)

As for the sticks, I got my hands on some dead tree limbs form the rental property that I live on.  I thought that these would be better to use 1, because they are free and it goes along with the theme of the project, and 2 because they match the outdoors theme of the aesthetic that I’m going for.  Basically I have all of the supplies that I will be needing except the string that I will use to hang the objects.  I haven’t decided what to use yet but I’m leaning toward either using runners that I have or just a simple nylon string.  I also haven’t quite picked out which objects to represent my aesthetic as I have more than necessary for the size of my mobile.

Sticks being used as the support rods (2)

After I get the final materials this weekend, I don’t suspect that I will have any major obstacles to overcome other than maybe the occasional frustration during the construction of the project.  I may have to recruit a few of my roommates to hold things while I try to get the balancing just right.

 

Sources:

Featured image:

Image 1: original

Image 2: original

 

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2 Comments. Leave new

  • Hey Ben!
    This is a cool idea, and I totally see your aesthetic vision coming through. I think the materials that you’ve chosen are super cool and unique, and go well together. Your concept is pretty sweet too– do you have plans for the project once it’s finished? I’m sure it would be a great addition to any room, but you could also consider turning it into a wind chime quite easily. I’m sure if you got several diameters of metal/wooden tubes, you could make some cool sounds with the climbing gear. If you’re not super into the noise of a wind chime, I feel like it could also translate quite easily to a bird feeder, if you’re interested in that. Also, I totally agree with James’ comment, I think adding some stacks of “balanced rocks” would look so dope.
    Phenomenal work, I can’t wait to see the final product!

    Reply
  • Ben,

    Its so cool to see how this project has progressed as you have continued thinking. I remember you mentioning the aesthetic of balance and I initially didn’t really know what that meant. After reading this post, I think I have a picture in my head of what to expect. Also, its pretty cool that you incorporated the climbing idea into your project as you read someone else’s post. I’m curious if you are going to be incorporating any rock? After all, rock climbing couldn’t happen without the rock itself. I was thinking about what it might look like if you could have a stack of rocks to support the mobile. Personally, if I were to do something like that I’d just glue rocks in a stack/cairn so they look balanced (which ties in even more) but the glue would keep it from falling. In any case, I look forward to seeing the finished product!

    Reply

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