Apart from picking it up and throwing it, the other way would be to attach fishing line (think of Joe 90, Thunderbirds and all those old 1950's sci-fi movies) to the object and the other end to a pole. It would be very difficult to animate it using stop motion as it would be sure to swing back and forth during each snap shot and therefore appear to jump.
So I would use either one of the above methods and just film it in the normal way. What size of object(s) are you planning to use? If they are small objects you could also use them against a blue or greenscreen with a rod or pole also coloured blue or green and then use After Effects to remove the pole and background and replace the background with a background of your own. Watch out for shadows being cast on the background. You could also do it in Adobe Premiere.
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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...
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