How to Make a Nature Mobile for Kids

First, make your clay beads as these will take a little while to dry. If you are using ready-made beads please head straight to Step 4.

Take a teaspoon-sized piece of air dry clay and roll it into a little ball. Make as many balls as you would like beads for your mobile. Use a skewer or small stick to poke a hole from one side straight through to the other to make a little clay bead.

Set them aside on a tray or dish to dry and harden.

Once your clay beads are dry, paint them any color and set aside again to dry.
I like to make some clay beads ahead of time so that the kids can set those aside to dry and continue straight on if they choose to.

Take your cord and cut off roughly five feet. Take one end and create a small hook for your mobile to hang off and knot it together (approximately two fingers in width).

Taking your two sticks, place them side by side about six inches from the loop end of your cord and tie the cord around the two of them.

Turn your two sticks so they are now making an X shape.

Begin wrapping the cord over the top of one of the sticks, moving over and under and back over the top to the next stick in a clockwise pattern similar to when you are creating an Ojo de Dios.

Continue using up all the cord and tie it off in a double knot.

One by one take a piece of your chosen nature treasure and tie one end of a piece of cord to each.

If your nature treasure doesn’t have an easy place to tie the cord, you can always glue the cord to it, as we did with the pinecone in ours.

Now take your painted clay beads and thread them on to each piece of cord holding the nature treasure.

Once you’re happy with the amount of beads on each, you can tie them to your nature mobile frame. This is the tricky part as you will want to try to evenly distribute the weight of each so your mobile stays as even as possible once hung.