Dragonflies

I've been following the very talented ladies over at the Stained Glass & Mosaics forum on GardenWeb. Take a look here to see what it's all about. There are some very creative people here that have loads of ideas and certainly don't mind sharing their secrets!

One of the ladies was making experimental dragonflies using old silverware spoons for the body. They turned out great so I just had to make one! Friday, on my lunch hour, I went to Goodwill to find the spoons. Dadgummit, somebody already grabbed the best spoons. Hmmm, I'll have to improvise a little, so I bought a couple of knives. The handles have great charm and I'm sure I can cut them. (I was so confident, I bought 2!!)

Mr. Man was working late so I knew I could make these before he got home. I rushed home, ignoring my need to workout (hey, it's Friday after all), and started working. I pulled out my hacksaw and started cutting......and cutting.....and cutting. Thank goodness I have a little contraption that could hold the knives steady for me while I cut....and cut.... and cut!

Finally, two handles are cut off and I used a file (probably not one for metal, but it worked) and smoothed down the cut ends a little.

Now, to pick out the glass for the wings, I think this iridized, textured glass scrap will work great!

This is going well and my timing is working out. Now, I have to find my wing patterns........... how frustrating when you are trying to rush to make a project and you can't find what you need.......

Searching, searching, searching.....how in the world did I collect so many patterns and why are there so many duplicate copies......certainly there are some dragonfly wings in one of these books......

No time to look anymore, I'll just draw some wings. Off to the computer to see what real dragonfly wings look like. Wow, what a variety of wings! Ok, just choose one pic and draw it, copy it, be sure to mark left side top, left side bottom, right side top, right side bottom ...... time's drawing near.

I rush back out to my shop and cut out the wings, placing them next to the body to envision the final creation:

Hmmm, not bad. Ok, I've already decided I would wrap the wings with U-came to make the process go faster, then solder the U-came to the body. I'm doing ok on time right now.

Great! The wing's wrapped and I take it to the soldering station to see if the solder will stick to the knife handle..........AARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

It won't work. Now Mr. Man is home and I'm so frustrated at this point that I just have to put it away. I spend the rest of the evening and all day Saturday trying to come up with some way that I can attach those wings. I've seen it done with wire but I've never used that technique. So, I mull it over in my mind and on Sunday afternoon I finally think I have the patience to work on it again.

Of course, I didn't take anymore pictures of the work in progress due to my previous failure. But, I did work with the wire, was able to finally get the wings attached and soldered a ring on it. All in all, I think the experiment turned out pretty well and I will probably make a few more to see how they sell at my uncoming show the end of October.

Now, I have to get back on track and get those business card holders finished and begin working on more items for the show.

~ til next time!