Mirror, Mirror

When I was visiting a yoga studio in Austin, I was fascinated by the strands of mirrors they had hanging from the outside windows. The reflected light played both inside the room and outside in the trees. Very cool! I also thought, "I could do that, too!"

So I went to Michael's and I bought brown silk cord (10 yards, $1.87), mosaic adhesive glue ($5.99), and 2 packages of mirrors - 1" circles and assorted squares. (25 for $1.99) The glue has toluene, be sure to use in a ventilated area!

I spaced the mirrors wrong side up about 2 inches apart, put a dot of glue on the back, laid the silk cord on top and then covered with the backside of another set of mirrors - wrong sides together. The glue does make them slip and takes at least 24 hours to set and dry. Use that to your advantage to straighten and center the cord. And do this project on a piece of cardboard you can pick up and move to a protected area to dry. The long side piece of the cardboard from a case of Dr Pepper was the perfect length and stiffness to work with.

I love the way it turned out - tied to one of the branches of my crape myrtles, the morning sun hits it perfectly and just the slightest breeze makes the cord twirl and the mirrors light up and dance. I need to make more!

Update 10-8-11 - Here's the link to the post with the video. I made three more strands. I was trying to capture the sunlight dancing.

I'm heading back to Michael's - I remember seeing a package of mirrored copper squares in the mosaic tiles next to the mirrors. I think that would be fun and pretty to intersperse with the silvery mirrors. The other Michael's I went to was out of the copper, but I also found multi-colored black irridescent squares. I'll post more pictures over the weekend.

Did you know Michael's now has an app for your smartphone? Imagine being able to pop in there and not having to smack yourself upside the head for leaving that 40% off coupon at home!