Friday, May 6, 2016

My 1st Morfo Butterfly is Complete

It's done and I love it! I admit it was a challenge. I was determined to use some lovely beads I had on hand, and I had to go digging several times for the 'right' beads to go with them, but it was worth the effort. Angela Gambka has designed a wonderful pattern that is so versatile. I used her videos without sound to see how she handled bead placement in the original. There were a few times that I cut the sewn in beads out and started over because I wanted to try something a little different. I'm very happy with the result.
Note: The lighting is still artificial, but I just couldn't wait till daylight to show you how it turned out.
Motif #18 for the 25 Motif Challenge
Flora size 20 in color #227 with assorted beads
4 cm across widest part of wing span; 4.5 cm from tips of antennae to lower wing tips

Marie, I understand your fascination with these butterflies now. I'm looking forward to starting another one. In fact, I plan to clean away everything and then go digging for the beads for the next one. I'm thinking red, black, and gold this time.

Kathy, you asked me earlier about the bead placement that looks like two rows of beads in 4 of those rings on the front of the butterfly. You load all of those beads onto your shuttle with those for the outer row coming off the shuttle before those on the inner row. When you wrap to start the ring, you need all of those for the outer row within the circle. When you slide one of those beads into place at a picot, you slide one from the shuttle into place beneath it on the core thread. It's the same method that forms the 4 beaded tips to the wings. The dark bead is on the core thread and the lighter ones are enclosed in the picot.

8 comments:

Jane McLellan said...

What a beautiful butterfly!

muskaan said...

Very pretty :-)

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I am determined to try this pattern, but I really think I need to be patient and wait a few weeks until school is out. I'm really enjoying seeing these little butterflies flitting around the Internet!

Michelle said...

The final result is gorgeous! Well done!

Kathy Niklewicz said...

You are moving at lightning speed! I was amazed to see your post here this morning with your wonderful finished butterfly, and also your entry in Craftree, where you have started a lively discussion! I'm not sure that everyone realizes there are two butterflies involved; but I would be happy just to make a pendant with the upper layer! And I can do that now because of your excellent explanation of the 'double bead' row. Thanks so much for your reply! I will be practicing today!

I have always been interested in the Ankars technique(s) and now I've become obsessed with this butterfly, thanks to your and Marie's success with it. Marie has made 12 of them! And you have now convinced me that it is 'do-able'!

I've also discovered that Georgia Seitz has a whole lot of information about the Ankars technique and its history, and had conducted an online class back in 2013. http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2013/ankars/ankars4lessons.html

On that site, Georgia also has a link to a 'basic' earring pattern by none other than Rina Stepnaya herself, one of the Russian gals who developed this technique!

God's Kid said...

Awesome!!!! :)

Jessica said...

Very cute!

Suztats said...

How beautiful! Makes me want even more to tat this pattern.