Beaded Dragonfly Tutorial, wire and glass bead table leg dragonfly art DIY

Update as of Spring 2016, I'm no longer making the dragonflies.

I sincerely appreciate all the past orders, thank you!

Please visit my new online shop featuring my coastal and 

nature themed mosaics. 

My latest beaded wing dragonfly, or see one of my other beaded wing dragonflies..

I wanted to share a tutorial on how I make them so you can create your own.

It's a lot of arrows, hope you can understand it...and excuse my

painted up hands, I was working on other projects at the same time :)

Paint your spindle or table leg that you will use for the body and drill 3 holes

towards the top of the body. You won't be able to paint it after you've beaded.

The middle hole needs to be bigger than the other two

since it will need to accommodate 3 passes of the wire.

I use approx 12 gauge wire, it needs to be pretty sturdy.

The wing structure will be made with one continuous piece of wire.

For wings that are about 12" long each, I estimate and cut approximately 

9 feet of the heavy duty wire. You can find rolls of this all purpose wire

in the picture hanging sections of home improvement stores.

I'll go ahead and tell you it will be like wrestling a baby alligator working

with that length of wire and getting it to cooperate but just take your time

and it will all come together!

Make the loop to keep the wire from coming through the other side...

After you've made the loop on the left, make a wing shape and 

thread through the top right hole, into the body and come out

at the top left hole...

Make another wing shape out to the left then thread the wire

back through the middle hole

This is how it should be so far...two top wings and the end of the wire

coming out the middle hole on the right side.

Make another wing shape and thread end of the wire through

 the bottom hole from right to left...

This shows the wire coming out of the left bottom hole.

Make another wing shape and ...

thread it back through the large middle hole to the other side.

This is the end of the wire coming out the middle hole on the right side...

If you estimated correctly, you'll probably have around 9" left.

Better to have some left than not enough!

Cut excess and make another loop to keep the wire from coming out...

You'll end up with something like this, adjust and shape the wings as needed...

Gather your beads...I use glass beads and about 30+

medium sized beads per wing with a few smaller and larger beads

mixed in as well.

Get thinner wire to thread the beads, approx 20 gauge is what I use...

I use wire in a lot of projects and this is a spool I already had

so it's what I used.  It just needs to be thin enough so it

will thread through your beads

I cut smaller pieces of the thin wire at a time and then start winding

and weaving the wire onto the wings adding beads as I go.

I don't have a particular method, just kind of create as I go along

You'll end up with something similar to this and that's it!

I added shell button/beads for the eyes on this one...

Uncoiled metal conduit for the antenna...

This is a fun material to use, I also used it in my

Jellyfish Lights

I used a wavy brick tie to embellish the body...

Another wing view...

He's ready to go.

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