Chasing Butterflies, part I

While flipping through a magazine I came upon an article that featured the set of a period picture set in Victorian England. I can't remember what movie it was or even what magazine, but what caught my eye was in the background of one of the pictures, sitting on a side table was a bell jar filled with amazing blue butterflies. I really wanted my own bell jar of butterflies, but since I'm a bit uncomfortable with the idea of having a bunch of dead animals under glass, I decided to make a batch of hand-made butterflies to mount.

Using stiff paper for wings was a pretty obvious choice, so armed with some scraps of BFK Reeve paper and a couple of books on butterfly identification, I drew some templates for the wings. I figured out the patters for the front and backs of the wings that I wanted, and drew the designs in colored pencil.

I wanted the bodies to be dimensional, so I decided to make them out of needle-felted wool.  I started by making a little cylinder of the wool with leaving a bit of un-felted wool at one end.

I then folded the loose roving over the wings and felted the wings into the roving.

When the bodies were done I added wire for the legs and antennae. To finish the butterflies I applied a liquid plastic to the ends of the antennae.

I liked them overall, but they weren't quite right so I made a second batch. I'll show you those in part II!