Hanging mobiles are known for having a hypnotic and enchanting effect on young children.

But a husband and wife team from Ilkley are discovering their appeal in the art world and exhibiting joint pieces of suspended sculpture across the country.

Juliet and Jamie Gutch both learnt how to make mobiles before meeting nine years ago. Now married and living with two young daughters in Ilkley, they create pieces of artwork ranging from miniature mobiles in perspex boxes to 8ft hanging structures installed by a crane.

Mobile art was pioneered by sculptor Alexander Calder in the 1930s as part of the kinetic art movement, which centred on creating work that moves.

The couple use lightweight, wooden veneer which is soaked to become pliable and then sculpted into different shapes which respond to the slightest movement of air.

Commissions include giant mobiles at the offices of oil giant BP and installations at hospitals including the haematology unit at St George’s Hospital in London and the opthalmology department at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Language graduate Juliet, 37, first took up sculpture while living in Italy where she was taught by a local welder. She later met Jamie, also a language student, who had set up a studio in London. He now teaches Italian at Harrogate Grammar School.

“Making a mobile is so easy, you just have to make it balance really,” Juliet said. “Often people associate mobiles with children. At first, we thought that was slightly negative but actually I think it taps into the fundamental need for enjoyment, balance, movement and play.”

The couple have held their first joint exhibition called Casting Silence at the Curwen and New Academy Gallery in London and Juliet’s sculpture called a Dream at Sea was recently on display at the Jaggedart exhibition in the capital.