What do you call a group of dragonflies? Officially the collective noun seems to be a flight of dragonflies or a cluster of dragonflies. Some more fitting terms that others have used are a glimmer of dragonflies or a dazzle of dragonflies. But I’ll have to admit that the first term that came to my mind when I completed this project was a squadron of dragonflies.
I got the idea from ‘Queen Bead’ Nia at The Bead Hold and you can get a copy of the instructions on her How to page. You will need:
2m 28 gauge wire
- wire cutters
- 11 x #8 seed beads (body)
- 2 x #8 seed beads (eyes)
- 22 x #11 seed beads (body)
- 80 dark delica beads
- 90 mid tone delica beads
- 90 lighter tone delica beads
If you have been following my earlier posts, you will have gathered that I have quite a thing for dragonflies. So the hardest thing for me was to choose what colour dragonfly I wanted – and you can tell by the results that I couldn’t really choose at all and wanted to try lots of different combinations. I won’t repeat Nia’s instructions here as they are free and really easy to follow, but I will show you some of the steps along the way.
The results are fabulous and you can use them in so many ways. I glued brooch backs onto them using a strong bead glue. They look great by themselves or you could combine them with other items to make a larger jewellery piece such as the wire rings shown. I’ve kept these as brooches but you could add a bail and a chain and make a fabulous necklace.
The dragonflies have been great little extras to add to gifts. For one birthday where I wasn’t supposed to be giving a gift (but I couldn’t help myself), I made some ANZAC biscuits (the birthday is on ANZAC Day) and pinned a dragonfly brooch to the ribbon.
For another birthday, I used a dragonfly card and pinned a dragonfly brooch with the same tonings in the centre of the dragonfly.
Wow Sue, the beaded Dragon Fly’s are stunning!!
Thanks Sandrina – they were fun to make too 🙂