Mobiles are fun to make, and look great in the classroom or in your room at home. Use different color paper for each crystal, to make your mobile look really nice.
MATERIALS:
3 dowel rods, or pieces of straightened clothes hangers
String or yarn
Colored paper to print the crystal patterns
Crystal patterns from this web page
LINKS TO CRYSTAL PATTERNS
Cubic
Tetragonal
Monoclinic
Hexagonal
Triclinic
Orthorhombic
PROCEDURE:
Copy the 6 crystal patterns from the page links above, on colored paper. I left them on separate pages so they would be easier to print from the net. You can use your printer, or a copy machine, to enlarge them if you want to. Cut out the shapes and fold on the dotted lines to make the desired shape. Adding tabs to the pattern makes things easier.Put the printed side to the inside. Glue or tape them together. If you use rubber cement and put it on the tab and the surface to go against it, then let it dry, it will be like contact cement. Tie the rods crossways along the central length of string. Attach shorter strings to the crystal shapes and attach them to the rod ends. Slide the rods back and forth in the knot to the mail string to balance them. Hang it up and enjoy it.
You can make more than one of each and make a bigger mobile. Send me a picture of yourself with your mobile, either E-mail or snail mail, and I will put it on the picture page of this web page.