How to Make a Bead Dragonfly

Sorting through a lot of mixed beads I was wondering what I could do with them and decided to have a play with making a dragonfly. I have taken a photo of my first attempt, (the photos aren't fantastic, sorry, trying to get the lighting and not having a really good background didn't help).

You will need:

About 24 inches of 26 guage wire

9 main beads, 2 x 4mm, 6 x 6mm. and 1 large bead for the body.

Using what I had I just laid out beads until I was happy with the sizing.

1 small gold or silver spacer bead

Approximately 80 small seed beads for the wings, your choice of color.

A couple of crimper beads

Round nose pliers, wire cutters and pliers

Cut your length of wire, and fold in half.

Place your spacer bead on one of the wires and slide down to your half-way bend.

Take a 4 mm bead and put through both ends of the wire and slide down to the spacer bead, keeping the wire even. Place 4 x 6 mm beads onto the wire (both wires) and slide down firmly.

Next you place the large body bead on.

Now this next bit is a little fiddly, take a 6 mm bead and opening the wires, place the bead, with the hole sideways, and put one end of the wire through the hole from the left side and the other wire through from the right side.

Pull the wire tight. You may need to use pliers to get it really firm (2 pairs come in handy). Getting the bead straight and the wires even may need a little bit of adjusting.

Now you are ready to string the wing beads on.

I did 18 on the smaller set of wings. Slide your seed beads on one side of the wire, then thread back through same 6 mm bead and pull firmly. Repeat with the other wire. Don't let the wire twist, or it can kink and we don't want that.

You should now have 2 sets of wings.

Thread 22 seed beads on one of the wires and thread back through same 6 mm bead and pull firmly. Repeat on the other side.

You should now have your 4 wings. Take the two wire ends, and twist a couple of times firmly around the 6 cm bead.

Slide another 6mm bead on, then your last 4 mm bead. Place a crimper bead on both wires, slide firmly to 4 mm bead and using pliers squash crimper bead in place. This holds everything on.

Now trim the ends of the wire to the same size and taking your round nose pliers (or pointy nose, whatever you like to call them) and make a small loop at the very end of the wire, and you have a dragonfly.

I have included my first attempt, with one set of wings.

I used 9 beads for the body and 6 crystals on the wings, along with spacer beads.

Thread on 7 beads, ranging from smaller to larger. Place your seed beads on either side of the wires, and thread around and back through bead.

Place on your last two beads, secure with a crimper bead and make a small loop at end of wire to make feelers.

These were made with left over beads and I'm sure you could make them much prettier using other beads, anyway hope you like these and have fun making some, the whole idea is to be creative and enjoy.

More links:

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