Fairy Garden dragonfly

I have really been enjoying making things to add to my fairy gardens, yes, that's plural, I actually have another one called Meadow's garden and she is my little artist fairy. I felt bad that she didn't have a friend like Petal does in her garden, so I decided a dragonfly would be perfect.

Meadow is sporting the U.S. flag in her garden in honor of the 4th of July!

I began by 

1. rolling out my Creative Paperclay® 

2. next I printed out a dragonfly and cut it out, then traced around the image 

 3. Next I used my scissors to cut it out.

I took some Paperclay and built up his body around the wire legs and let him air dry for 48 hours.

One of the most important steps is coating my fairy garden pieces with Paverpol which really hardens the pieces and even though they are on the balcony, under the roof, they are still outside, and get misted with water about every day. They are holding up beautifully too! After the Paverpol dried I then sprayed him with some spray inks and again let dry.

I did give the spray inks a coating of spray varnish, then attached him to a pod thingy ( haven't a clue what that is ) and stuck him in my garden. His legs are wrapped around the stick, no glue needed.

“”The dragonfly spiritually embodies the stripping away of negativity that holds us back, helping us to achieve our dreams and goals. Dragonflies are the keepers of dreams, the energy within that sees all of our true potential and ability. Dragonflies inspire spirituality and creativity, they help us on the path of discovery and enlightenment. They remind us that anything is possible.” – Beauty and the Green

Three Dimensional Dragonfly

This three dimensional dragonfly started as a flat slab of Creative Paperclay®.

I began by rolling out a ball of clay about 1/8" thick, and large enough to cover my embossing folder. I pressed the folder into the clay, leaving impressions on the clay slab.

Next, the pieces were put aside to dry. I've discovered that drying the clay on a kitchen cooling rack helps to reduce warping. Using a cooling rack allows the clay to dry on both the top and the bottom at the same time. This also eliminates the need to turn the clay.

When the slab and pieces were partially dry and still flexible, I cut out a second set of dragonfly wings, and used wide rubber bands to secure them in place around a jar until they were completely dry and firm.

When the slab was dry, I cut out the dragonfly shape using scissors. Any rough edges were buffed with an emery board and Sandits.

Next step was to paint the pieces. I began by sealing all the surfaces with PPA, an acrylic medium. When the sealing coat was dry, I layered several colors of mica powders mixed with PPA Gloss to achieve the luminous colors.

I used E6000 adhesive to attach the second set of wings to the front of the body and to attach a filament for hanging. I chose to use the filament rather than a jewelry bail, because when the dragonfly is hung I wanted it to appear to be hovering midair.

Carole