The octahedron mobile is the second mobile that I made for our little girl. It is also the second mobile in the Montessori Infant Mobiles – Visual Series. We introduced this mobile when Tala was 11 weeks old. It was suggested that we introduce this at 8 weeks but she was still very much interested in her first mobile, the Munari Mobile, at that time. It was also recommended to use the 3 primary colors but we added in the gold and the silver colors just for fun.
OCTAHEDRON (plural: octahedra)
a three-dimensional shape having eight plane faces, especially a regular solid figure with eight equal triangular faces.
Materials Needed:
Metallic/reflective foil or wrap.
Pattern printed on cardboard paper. (Download pattern here)
Glue
Double sided tape
Scissors
Eye/head pins
Metal chain or nylon string
Round/long nose pliers
1/2″ PVC pipe
White spray paint
Ruler
Thin metal with rounded corners similar to hacksaw blade (optional)
Please excuse the images if they transition from light to dark to light since the photos were taken on different times of days and different locations in the house. :)
STEP 1
Download and print the Octahedron pattern. I intentionally made 2 sizes so there will be some variations when the mobile is done.
STEP 2
Before I cut out the patterns, I ran the blunt/smooth side of the hacksaw blade on the lines of my pattern to create a groove. This will make it easier to fold later on.
STEP 3
Once you have the grooves in place, begin to cut out the patterns. The number of octahedra will be up to you. In my case, I went for 10.
STEP 4
Once the patterns have been cut out, begin to fold the pattern into shape but do not stick the edges together yet.
STEP 5
Cut the metallic foils into small sheets and begin to glue the patterns on to the sheets. Once the glue dries up, begin to cut out the foil but leave a little over the edge of the pattern so you can fold it over the edge and tape it, this will provide a clean, seamless edge on your octahedra once you start to fold them together.
STEP 6
Once you have glued and taped the foil to the pattern, fold the pattern once more to create the creases on the edges. After that you can now begin to add the double sided tape on the edges of our patterns.
STEP 7
Once you start sticking the edges together, begin to add the eye/head pins on the top and on the bottom of each octahedron.
STEP 8
Cut 2 25cm PVC pipes and paint them with the white spray paint. Heat up the bottom edge of the eye/head pins and burn a hole 1cm from the edge of the pipe and on the center. Insert the eye pins on those holes.
STEP 9
Line up the octahedra in the order that you want to hang them and then connect them using the nylon string. I have some leftover chains from our previous projects so I used those to connect the octahedra to each other and to the PVC pipes.
Here is the final result.
Our little girl fully captivated with her new mobile.
