Flying Masterpiece

So from time to time I work as a fairy, prancing around acting like a five year old whilst telling tiny darlings to sit pretty and straight and have their faces painted in any number of designs. Almost always a butterfly. This requires me to look sparkly and entertaining so I dress as a fairy in layers of glittery mesh and beads and sequins. The wings have always been a sore point. The market is blown with colourful stockings stretched over coat hangs and covered with glitter... this does not convince me... nor a five year old. If you look long and hard you may come across a more creative design, home brewed and difficult to recreate but refreshing all the same. So then I started investigating how one could make realistic wings, which poses the question, what does a real, imaginary object look like? And came to the conclusion that it was something crossed between a dragon fly wing and butterfly wing. I then came across the wings on the website http://www.fancyfairy.com/fairywings.html and was... well... over the moon! Unfortunately I do not believe in paying extreme amounts of money for something I'm certain I can do myself. So I began experimenting. The first attempt was a complete failure. Too large, too bulky and the veins looked like a giant bird spider rather than a dainty fairy. So after several experiments and $180 (Yes it would have been cheaper to buy them) I finally have a finished product and for the rest of the world.... here's how I did it.

How to Make Iridescent Fairy Wings

Materials:-
Clear Vinyl
Iridescent paint/ pigment/ powder
Clear Contact
Floral Wire
Thick aluminium wire
Pencil and Paper
Masking Tape
Sticky tape
Gold Paint
Stick ons (glitter, beads, I used gold stems)
Gold fabric paint

How:-
Using Aluminium wire attach three strips together, one 60cm, one 50cm and one 40cm. Attach them in the centre and bind them together with floral wired and then flare out the three prongs on either side. Bend into a U shape. This is the frame and the wings will attach to this.

Draw a skeleton of the wing on paper. Cut out the clear vinyl to match the outline of the wing. Paint/ brush iridescent powder onto the surface of the wing and seal with spray. Make armature out of floral wire in the shape of the skeleton and place onto vinyl. Paint frame gold.

Cut square of contact to fit wing and spread out evenly over wing with wire sandwiched in between. Trim to shape. I cut a jagged edge around the wing and added a few holes for authenticity.

Tape the wing onto the U shaped frame and cover the U with masking tape. Paint gold over masking tape and along the edges of the wings. Using gold fabric paint, draw the veins onto the wing. Attach gold bling to wing.

The U slots into a bra strap or corset. Voila.