Make a Feather Butterfly
The beautiful form of a butterfly makes a great decoration for parties, weddings, and homes. In this tutorial, the wings are created from feathers, giving the resulting butterfly an elegant and beautiful appearance.
Contents
Steps
Preparing the Feathers
- Purchase and gather your supplies in a clean work area. The colors and sizes of your materials will be dependent on what the decorations will be used for. The feathers should be purchased in the ideal color, but butterfly bases can be painted before you begin or adorned with beads and jewels later.
- In this tutorial, a card image of a butterfly body has been cut out to the exact shape and the feathers have been glued to the back of the card design. In this case, you have less room to change the colors but it will provide a sophisticated look at the end.
- Trim the feathers if they are too wispy or are not the correct size. (Keep the feather bits confined to a small area since they are a pain to clean up.)
Designing the Wings
- Plan out how the butterfly wings are going to look on each piece. Set up a few as they would look if glued. The wings (you can use as few as one or up to five or six, it depends on their size) should come from a common point about two thirds of the way up the base. The bottom "wings" work best if a bit longer than the top ones because they will be at a greater angle.
Making the Feather Butterfly
- Glue the wings onto the bottom of the butterfly base. Begin with one of the larger bottom wings. Glue one on at a time, placing the glue onto the base, not the wings. Continue to glue the other side's wings over the base of the last feather.
- Glue the top wings on slightly farther up from where the bottom wings are attached, repeating the process from the step above.
- Trim any excess base if it now looks odd compared to the wing size.
- Trim any excess feathers and fluff that stick out from the wings. This includes feather bases that stick out onto the opposite side.
- Attach tiny trimmed feathers to the butterfly's "head" for small antennae. These, unlike the wings, should be added on top of the base.
- Add any adornments to the butterfly's base, covering the antennae with glue.
- If you would like this to be turned into a brooch, attach a brooch pin at the back, using glue.
- Finished.
Tips
- These feathered butterflies make excellent gifts and school fair sales items.
- The easiest way to make a flying butterfly is by using straws since clear fishing line can be run and tied right through them. The string can be taped with a clear scotch tape to the desired location.
Warnings
- If hot glue is your glue of choice, be careful. The metal tip where the glue comes out of it very hot and give small, painful burns. Also, remember to unplug your hot glue gun after use. It is a fire hazard when left out unattended.
Things You'll Need
- Feathers in chosen colors, various sizes
- Butterfly bases (Small straws (or large ones cut in pieces), tongue depressors or other small sticks, etc.); or, as in this tutorial, a strong cardboard/card image of a butterfly body, cut to the shape
- Adornments for the butterfly base (Optional. These could include small beads, jewels, pearls, paint, glitter, etc.)
- A strong glue such as hot glue from a hot glue gun or Super Glue. Elmer's Glue works, but heavier adornments may not stick
