Wings to fly with

I finally got the doll finished for my art project - she is titled "The Last of the Faeries".

I had a lot of fun making the wings and they were so easy. I wanted lacy wings so I figured I'd try burning organza to achieve that look. I had never tried it before but I've read about it in magazines and it sounded simple.

I drew out a sketch of what I wanted the wings to look like so I didn't go into it blindly.

Then I took a piece of floral wire - think it was 16 gauge - and bent it into an extended 'v'. Took another wire and formed the same shape but made it much tighter, then I nested the smaller 'v' inside the big one. I sprayed the wires with 505 - a temporary adhesive spray and stuck them to the organza. Didn't stay too well so I added a couple of pins across the wires.

Zig-zagged the wires down with the sewing machine and then trimmed the organza a bit. Now the fun started. I took my Versa-tool, which is like a soldering iron with lots of different tips, and put in the stencil cutting tip. It's a bit bigger than the tip of a soldering iron - but that would work great too. Then all I did was just draw the shape I wanted with the hot tip - the excess organza just melted away.

It was so cool!

You really have to be careful though - it takes a really light touch or you could end up with a really big hole! The nylon kind of built up on the tip of the iron so I had to keep wiping it off on a wet washcloth - read that tip somewhere on line - it sure helped! Once that was done - and it only took a couple of minutes per wing, I painted the wings with acrylic paint. It was hard to control the flow of the paint on the organza - I think that will take more practice than making the wings!

But it was a grand experience and I'm sure to make more fairies now! Or maybe just a wing collection ...