Forgotten Trinkets : 2015

I've already posted an easy step by step tutorial on how to make similar wire framed fairy wings, and you can find more detailed instructions in that post. I was just feeling rather festive, and decided to make a little pair of green and gold wings, and I thought I'd share a few pictures, enjoy.

Instead of using four wire hangers, one for each wing like I did on my previous pair of wings, I formed these wings out of two hangers.

I was aiming for a swallowtail butterfly-ish shape, but I wasn't quite happy with it so I tried to add a bit of a scalloped edge, which helped.

Because the wings are quite small, I ended up using just one pair of knee high stockings, cutting them in half and knotting the ends to cover my wings.

I was a bit...overzealous with the incense stick while melting holes in my wings, which caused a few runs in the stockings. As a result, it looks like my wings have some sort of horrible flesh eating parasite eating away at them. Oops.

Since most paints don't show up particularly well on dark backgrounds, I painted my design in white first, so that the colors I painted in top would be more vivid.

Yikes, that yellow, a bit too vivid. Oh well.

I wish my camera phone could better capture the true sparklyness.

Then I added a bit of glitter....well..actually, quite a lot of glitter, theres no such thing as too much glitter, right?

I bent the remaining wire, from what used to be the hook of the hanger, into a U shape to create the frame. In hindsight I should have used some extra wire to make the frame a bit larger. The small frame does stay tucked into the back of a tightly fitted bodice, but it doesn't feel nearly as secure as a larger frame.

Here are the two sets of wings together for size comparison. As you can see the wings made from just two hangers are quite dinky compared to the full sized set. Still, I think they're rather cute.

Not long ago I was going through some of my craft supplies, attempting to organize them, attempting being a key word here. While I was rummaging through some old beading knick knacks I found some vaguely familiar plastic sheeting, I didn't entirely remember what it was until a month or so later. Shrink plastic! I remembered playing with the stuff years ago, admittedly I got a bit nostalgic...then I remembered why I hadn't touched it in years: drawing...not exactly a forte of mine. Still, I've been a bit burnt out on failed sewing projects, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The results, I'm proud to say where not too appalling.

Not overly appalling, but perhaps a bit tacky :)

The real charm of shrink plastic is, if you make a few mistakes, (as I inevitably do) you can have the satisfaction of watching those mistakes curl up and shrink into obscurity, then pretend they don't exist. It's delightful.

There are a few basic varieties of shrink plastic: clear, white, sanded or smooth. The sanded or frosted shrink plastic is best suited to colored pencils because the texture gives the pencils something to grip onto, and the finished pieces will be matte. The smooth or glossy plastic works best with markers and alcohol inks. The main difference between the clear and white shrink plastic, is that the white plastic is opaque, and the design can only be seen on one side, versus the clear plastic where you can see the design clearly on both sides. You can even achieve a lovely stained glass appearance when working with the clear glossy plastic. (an effect, I can't really demonstrate because I only have the frosted variety)

Now this isn't really much of a tutorial, more just an invitation to play with a new medium and experiment. I ended up making a few necklaces, if you'd like to make something similar you will need the following materials:

Shrink plastic
Hole punch
Scissors
Colored pencils
Oven
Baking paper
Needle nose pliers
Chain
Clasp
(Optional) Clear top coat or glaze

Step 1. Draw whatever you like on the shrink plastic. If drawing isn't your forte you can sketch a few ideas on paper first, or look for images in coloring books and trace the ones you like best. I chose to use colored pencils on mine because it was what I had on hand but you can use all sorts of things to draw on your shrink plastic: permanent markers, stamps, alcohol inks, or Copic markers.

I drew a few simple gems and traced a swallowtail butterfly from a coloring book.

Step 2. Color in your designs. Keep in mind that the colors will become more intense when you shrink your images.

I may have been a bit overzealous with the rainbow...in my defense, its been rather gray this january.

Step 3. Carefully cut out your images, rounding any sharp corners, and punch any necessary holes.

Step 4. Prepare to shrink your designs! My shrink plastic's instructions said to place the pieces colored side up on a baking paper lined sheet pan in a 325 degree F (or 163 C) oven, but your instructions may differ, so make sure to read them. Shrinking your charms is by far the most nerve wracking/exciting part of the process.

First the plastic will curl. If it looks like it might be stuck to itself pull it out of the oven and carefully unstick the warm piece. You must do this while the plastic is warm and flexible, if it gets too cold it will become brittle and snap.

If you like, you can seal your designs. (However, I would not recommend the spray I used-Kylon Acrylic Crystal Clear, it did not work very well and the pieces stunk for quite a while even after they had completely dried.)

Step 5. You can really use these charms for anything you can think of.

I chose to make a couple necklaces. Unfortunately, I didn't have any jump rings that matched my chain, instead I simply opened up the last link of my chain and used that to attach the charm to the necklace.