Wired Dragonfly Day 59

Sometimes I get these really weird notions to save something completely obscure, although at the time I have no idea what I will use them for.  This is one of those moments.  I had some jewels that apparently are used to hang off cakes by poking this toothpick thing into the cake boards.  Well that's all great and good, but I decided that the jewels would look far superior on a chandelier.  Now this wouldn't be odd...if the jewels were what I had saved.  However, I reserved the plastic toothpick parts because for some oddball reason, I wanted them to be dragonflies.

You know, your typical train of thought...toothpick = dragonfly.

I love DFs.  The only bug I love more than them are praying mantis bugs.  I had a praying mantis living outside my window once and as far as I am concerned that was the best pet I ever owned.  I love them.  They are strange, they look like aliens, they are ninja bugs, and I like them.

Weird but true.

So since I have yet to determine how to turn a mantis into jewelry, I will stick with dragonflies.  You will need:

-A plastic or real toothpick, I see no reason why they can't both be used here.  Or something else generally slender.
-Beads (round and also some seed beads.  I suggest white/clear tube shaped seed beads)
-Wire


 My general method to this is that I put the beads on first that I want to be the top.  This lets me determine if I will need to wire wrap the top bead to keep it in place or if a spot of glue will suffice.  If I can avoid opening my glue, I do.

Assuming you need to wrap the top bead, I prefer to start at the bottom, wrap the wire a few times around the base going up, take the wire around the two or however many beads that make up the body that fit on well, and then put the wire through the top bead, the top bead on the pick, and wrap the wire back down around the beads and the base. 

Clearly, I always use longer lengths of wire for this project.

 To make wings, I use a different cut of wire and wrap it a few times between two beads.  Then I string on my seeds (for me, 13 white/clear tube shaped seed beads) and bend them into wing form.  Then I wrap the remaining wire around the fly a few times, and make the next wing.  Any remaining wire after the four wing sections are made gets wrapped around the body and the wings to keep them all together.

Here are a few examples of dragonflies I have made.  You can wrap wire around the body to make a bail to hang them from a necklace if you desire.  I also think these would make cute decorations, things to hang on gifts, and many others.

Here is an up close shot of my favorite little guy.

I tried at one point to add beads into the wrap around the bottom, and it just did not come out like I wanted.  If you had the right beads it could be super cute, but anything other than a tiny ball shaped bead is probably going to look a little odd.

You can use varying gauges of wire too, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand.  My blue fly is made of much thicker wire than the other two.


Happy crafting!