Make your own bedroom mobile from some old wood and vegetable paints!
Whether big or small, our kids love hanging mobiles from their bedroom ceilings. Whether for play, decoration or something to catch their dreams, it’s a must-have accessory for every child’s bedroom nowadays.
Make your own hanging mobile from recycled wood and vegetable paints. A creative workshop that’s perfect for the whole family.
Materials
Materials for the vegetable paint
- A red cabbage
- An orange
- Coffee granules
- Some fresh spinach
- A few raspberries
- Baking soda
Materials for the mobile
- An old wooden crate or similar
- A pair of scissors
- Two bamboo sticks
- Some wire thread
- A thread reel
- Some liquid glue
Making the different colours
Painting with red cabbage
You can make both purple and blue paint from a red cabbage.
Cut the cabbage into small pieces, place them in a saucepan and cover with water.
Bring to the boil for a few minutes. Sieve the cabbage, collecting the water in a separate container. Simply use the water as your purple paint!
Add two teaspoons of baking soda to a small jar.
Pour half the purple cooking water over the baking soda. Mix well together. Now you’ve got some blue paint, as well!
Use the raspberries to make pink paint.
Mash a few raspberries together with a splash of water.
Separate the coloured juice by filtering the mixture through a fine sieve or coffee filter.
Your pink paint is now ready to go!
The coffee can be used to make light brown paint.
Make some filter coffee as if you were going to drink it.
Once ready, simply use the brown liquid for painting!
Use the orange to make pale yellow paint.
Finely grate the orange peel into a zest.
Soak the zest in water for a few minutes.
Separate the coloured juice by filtering the mixture through a fine sieve or coffee filter. Now you’re ready to get started with your yellow paint!
You could also paint directly with the juice of the orange, or make a brighter yellow paint by mixing some water with turmeric or curry powder.
The spinach can be used to make green paint.
Prepare a container of very cold water (using ice cubes).
Immerse the spinach in boiling water for one minute before removing and transferring immediately to the iced water.
The thermal shock will set the chlorophyll* and prevent it from losing its lovely green colour.
Mix the spinach and leave to settle.
Recover the liquid from the bottom (trying to avoid any leaves) by pouring the mixture into different containers or using a fine colander or sieve. Your green paint is ready to go!
Your vegetable paints are now ready. Children can use paint brushes to draw on white sheets of paper, or else make ‘raindrops’ to hang from the mobile and decorate their bedrooms.
Making the mobile
Dismantle your crate so you’re left with various pieces of wood.
Using a strong pair of scissors, cut the pieces into raindrop shapes.
Try to make around ten.
If possible, lightly sand the edges of each raindrop with some sandpaper.
You can either paint them with a brush or place the wooden raindrops directly into the paints for a few minutes to stain them.
When the wood is nicely coloured, take out the raindrops and leave them to dry.
You’ll be left with soft pastel colours.
Take your two wooden sticks (between 20cm and 40cm long) and a little of the wire thread.
Place the sticks one on top of the other to form a cross and fix them together using the wire thread.
Twist it around the sticks several times. Keep a little piece of wire thread free at the end.
Make a hanging loop with the free wire thread.
When all the wood is completely dry, add a spot of glue on the very top of each of your raindrops.
Enrouler du fil à coudre autour de la pointe. Il sera fixé par la colle.
Cut the wire threads to around thirty centimetres in length.
Leave everything to dry before hanging from the mobile.
What is the chlorophyll found in spinach?
Chlorophyll is the pigment that gives leaves their green colour. It’s thanks to chlorophyll that plants can make their own food (sugar) by capturing sunlight.
Article DIY written and created by ©Morganours
