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Friday, February 19, 2010

Craft it Tuesday- Hamsa Hanging Mobile Part 2

Okay, like I said in the Israeli Salad post, I am behind. But that is okay I am catching up.
We are going to decorate our hamsas today and hang them for display.
Supplies for decorating


rubber or acrylic stamps
stamp pads (I use Stazon but not required)
acrylic paint
spray paint
crystals
jewelry pendants
sharpies
E6000 glue (available at any craft store)
think creatively, you can use anything
Don't forget, you can also do this craft with children so think crystal shapes, stickers, markers, and glitter glue.

In the past I have used my shapes both in the plain white, and with a painted surface. I have also painted my shapes with textured paint to look like limestone and also hammered copper. And in the past I also used my chalk inks to make a background on the shapes (like a blue sky).

So for this first mobile, I have painted my shapes to look like limestone. I used Rustoleum's Textured Stone Paint.
I don't know if you can see the texture in this picture, but this is what it looks like:It is a very light- textured surface.
Allow to dry- I have found it is usually about 1 hr.
Now we will decorate. This paint texture seemed to say to me simple and beautiful.
I am using simple jewelry pendants. I found the Magen David (star of david) at Michaels in the charms and I found the round swirl pendant also at Michaels in the jewelry.
On the square shape, I paced a square jewelry pendant I bought in Israel that the pendant mechanism was broken, so I repurposed it. Place the swirl pendant on the round shape and the Magen David on the Hamsa. I glued all of these using E6000 glue. I love that stuff!!!!!!
Let your glue dry. It takes about 1 hr to dry and 24 hrs to cure. If you decorations are light- you can go ahead and start the hanging process, if not, go ahead and allow the 24 hrs as you don't want your mobile falling apart.

Supplies for preparing your hamsa for hanging.
Beading line- I think I used 5mm but I am not sure.
Beads (preferably coordinating, although eclectic is good too :) )
E6000 glue
wooden dowel (if you choose this method)
large silver bail (if you choose the wooden dowel method)
scissors
Needle nose pliers
There are several different ways you can hang these. For this mobile I used just a simple beading line loop but in a couple of the examples I am going to show you you can see that I have varied the method of hanging.

Lets get started:
Take your bottom shape and tie a long piece of beading line ( usually go with 14 inches approx) with a double knot around your hanging piece. (remember the u shape we inserted in the wet clay?).
Leave at least 2 inches of beading line as a tail. Thread a small bead onto both ends of the beading line and then feed the ends again through from the bottom to the top- we are going to use this method a bunch of times to prevent the beads for sliding around. I go ahead and add a drop of glue at this point to the bottom of the bead where it sits over the u hanging piece. Now thread another bead on, this can be a square, a round, a tear drop, any shape bead you desire. Again, I felt this was a simple feel to it so I only used small blue beads that matched the blue on the swirl pendant and one bright green square bead. I usually space the beads out 4-7 inches apart but it all depends on how long you want your finished mobile to be.
Again, you are going to loop back through, and this time go ahead and put your thread through the loop before you pull it tight (like a blanket stitch) This seems to hold it from sliding down. Do this with as many beads as you want to string together. Space them out or put them all together, this is your design, go crazy :). Now slide one more bead on, but don't tie through it yet, first tie the end of the beading line to the bottom of your next shape. Now use your tail to double loop through to secure it to the bottom of the shape, I again use a little dot of E6000 to keep it from moving. Just a little bit more security. After your glue is dry, go ahead and trim the ends of your tails to close to the beads they are tucked through.
Repeat these steps for as many shapes as you have. (I did three, one I purchased has four, it can be as many as you wish)
Now to finish off. If you are using the beading line to make a loop to hang your mobile, you will want to tie it several times (I think I did 5) and then add a drop of glue, let dry, and trim the ends. Your done! Hang it up.
Sorry , my walls are very light colored so it is hard to see but I still love it!
If you are using the wooden dowel method- I cut mine to 5 inches wide (it was a 1/4 inch dowel) And spray painted it black. I attached the large silver bail in the center and then tied the beading line to the bail and the top shape.
You will notice on this one, I rubber stamped on the bottom one, then put crystals- I think I have a close up-I went back after this and used a sharpie to fill in where ever the ink didn't cover. This is where making sure your shape is flat and even is good, if not, that is what sharpies are for, lol. I used black crystals from Jolee's (thank you Michaels again)
For the top shape I used another pendant I found on clearance.
So these two are the ones I have made but I made a bunch of these for the holidays. I decorated one with peace signs for my niece. I made one with zebra print just for fun and also I used chalk ink to make a sky on one and then stamped a tree that looks like the tree of life, and then I used silver embossing powder to make it look awesome. Since I gave it as a gift I can't show it to you, wish I had realized I was going to be doing a tutorial- maybe I will have to make another one to show you :)
I am working on another clay project- maybe we will do it next Tuesday :)

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