Walnut mobile

A project for my offcuts

I always keep my offcuts, even the really tiny pieces that I have no idea what I can use them for. Some, although small or awkwardly slim, have these beautiful curves due to being the negative space left after cutting the silhouette of a spoon. It always seems a shame not to be able to use them, but until recently I hadn’t worked out how.

So I decided to carve them into shapes and turn them into a hanging mobile. This project hasn’t used all of them by far, I focused on the walnut pieces to keep the colours similar and still have quite a few long and slim ones yet. So a new design for a second one will have to be thought of!

I don’t usually work with such small pieces of wood, so I did find it challenging getting a good grip on some of the smaller ones whilst trying to sand them. Attaching it all together was also a little on the fiddly side, but I’m pleased with the end result.

I was keen that all the shapes were soft and curved, no hard angles to disrupt the overall effect. I attached it all together then took half of it apart, made a few extra pieces then redesigned that side of it, as I felt it was lacking something. The finished piece has more three dimensional movement to it which works.