Friday, May 20, 2011

Rainbow Sprites Spring Mobile

A few months ago, i came across a blog post (i can't remember where..sorry!) about Rainbow Angel kits and turning them into a mobile.

i can not remember the name of the blog, but you can find the Rainbow Angel kits at several different places online, including Bella Luna Toys and A Toy Garden.
i knew immediately that i wanted to make these to replace our winter snowflake mobile. They are very easy to make, and make a really wonderful spring/summer mobile.


Of course, you do not have to buy the kits if you have wool roving available. i have a nice selection of roving and was pleased to find enough of each color to make a rainbow. i think the kits only make 6 colors, but i had enough shades of wool to make 9 colors. i used a deep red, red-orange, orange, yellow, bright green, dark green, blue-green, blue, violet and dark purple. You can make yours with more or less colors.

i thought i'd give you a basic tutorial on making the angels/sprite/ fairies what ever you want to call them. You are going to start with a bit of wool and some cotton string. i don't measure any of this out, i just grab a chunk and go. You'll need a bit of the white for the wings. Then split your colored wool into two pieces, like above. You need a piece of the arms, and a piece for the body.


Cut a piece of cotton string about 2- 2 1/2 foot long. Fold your big piece of roving in half, and tie the string a little ways down over the fold to create the head. Leave about a 3 inch tail on one end of the string, and leave the other end long. i like to needle felt the head just a little to make it appear more round.


Take your smaller piece of roving and tie a not on each end. i try to make it a loose knot, so it kind of looks like hands. i don't pull it really tight.

Then i place the arms between the layers of roving.


Take your long piece of string, and wrap it across the chest in a criss-cross manner. i go over the right shoulder under the left arm, around the neck, then under the left arm and over the right shoulder and around the waist. Then i repeat it. Did that make sense?

Tying the string to the 3 inch tail in back. When your done it should look like this.


Now flip it over and center your white wool on the knot in the back. Tie in place. Use your fingers to fluff and shape the wings a bit.



Now you can clip off the excess string from the tail, but keep the long string to attach your fairy to the mobile.



Repeat this process with each of your roving colors to create a rainbow assortment of fairy sprites. Now you can create your mobile!

For my mobile i used a piece of twisted grapevine, and spaced my sprites about 3" apart along the grape vine, and tied each one so the sprite hung about 2-3" lower than the one before to create the lovely descending spiral.


If you have any questions feel free to ask! These are very easy to make, but i fear i may have complicated them in my attempt to explain the process. :)

4 comments:

  1. Fabulous and I have all the materials!!! We have to do this one.
    Thanks for the tutorial!

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  2. sweet, I couldn't see the wings against the white wall..... till I looked at the steps. looks so easy...too cute, i love how wispy they are.

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