4.2.5 Unidirectionally Flattened Style

Taking the butterfly as an example

(1) Hand-painted Butterfly

Production Steps

01 Use 12 sets of blue velvet threads. Velvet row width is 4.5cm. Brass wire spacing is 1.2cm. Use 0.2mm annealed brass wire. Group three filaments into one strip. After slightly trimming the lower ends of the velvet strips, flatten them, apply setting agent, and adhere them.

02 Use white glue to adhere the velvet strips together.

03 After the velvet piece is adhered, you can run it through a heated flattening clamp (remember to heat it up) to make the adhesion stronger.

04 Three velvet strips form one wing. Cut out the desired butterfly shape and draw the patterns. Tools for drawing patterns can be acrylic markers or water-based gel pens + black eyeliner.

05 Apply glitter to the painted butterfly wings (glitter can also be added when applying setting agent to the velvet piece). To apply glitter, first mix hairspray and 95% alcohol in a 1:1 ratio, then add glitter. Apply the mixture to the velvet piece.

06 Take a 0.3mm steel wire. Start wrapping with black thread from the end, then fold it in half and continue wrapping. The final wrapped length should be 3cm. (Length can be adjusted according to preference.)

07 Bend the longer section of the wire upwards and continue wrapping to make the other antenna.

08 Both antennae are made from the same single piece of steel wire.

09 Below the point where the antennae converge, add two 0.5mm copper/steel wires. Wrap and thicken them using four strands of black thread. After wrapping for about 3.2cm, fold it in half to serve as the butterfly's body.

10 Continue wrapping after folding. At the halfway point of the butterfly's body, press down the excess copper/steel wire.

11 Combine with the wings.

12 The butterfly can be assembled with a hairpin alone, or combined with flowers to add interest.

(2) Stamped Butterfly

Production Steps

01 Use 11 sets of white velvet threads. Velvet row width is 4cm. Brass wire spacing is 2.2cm. Use 0.2mm or 0.25mm annealed brass wire to make the velvet strips.

02 If the velvet strips are neat and tidy, they do not need trimming. Flatten them directly and apply setting agent.

03 Take out the ink pad and the butterfly stamp.

04 Stamp the pattern onto the velvet piece.

05 After stamping, cut it out along the outline.

06 Stack the four trimmed velvet pieces face-to-face, bind them tightly together with thread, and secure.

07 After binding, open the wings from the center.

08 Add the butterfly body (refer to the production method in the previous section). The stamped butterfly is complete. The advantage of a white butterfly is that if you want to change the color later, you can dye it on the white base using pearlescent solid watercolors.

See the finished product video: https://youtu.be/kiApzVjbM-Q