December 23, 2013

Moths

Photos of Orbicularis and Euplocia Membliaria moths are what started this journey.  Then I discovered Mister Finch's work.  Now I want to sew moth sculptures of my own!


I've long had a fascination with moths.... they are nocturnal, fuzzy enough to want to pet them and have a fashion sense that is outstanding.  See my Pinterest board to see what I've been looking at.  


I've made paper patterns and torn up paper patterns. Third reitteration and it still isn't right.

 I've haunted thrift stores for fabrics as I could envision wool felted wings.  Dang.... 100% wool clothing seems to have totally disappeared.  If a suit has spandex in it, it just won't felt right.

So, I've been collecting parts and pieces to try working with.  Sigh, no.... I don't want to buy a yard of 60" wide fake fur to get a 2" piece of moth head fuzz out of.  If it doesn't work, I have to get rid of a lot of fake fur.  Thank heavens for Tucson's SAS, fabric by the pound.  They had 2 huge boxes of fake fur sample squares.  It's lightweight, so how in the world can you get to the counter to find out that you have 5.5 lbs of the stuff?

Then there is the creative problem of making male moth antenna.  They look like miniature ferns.  Sure, I could just do straight, single wire antenna, but I'd like to come up with something that looks like these feathery ones.  OK, thin wire is a possibility.  Yes, wire wrapping and clipping works (of sorts)  but 2 days to do one antenna  seems a bit much for my sense of impatience.  I'd rather be adding beads to fancy up the wings.  Any ideas?  It doesn't have to replicate the moth antenna, but be more essence of moth. How would you make them?

Cookies - oh dear, I started out to make a batch of Christmas cookies and got side tracked here. Well, guess the butter should be soft by now.  Hope you have Christmas cookies to munch on this Christmas eve eve...


2 comments:

  1. What beautiful moths!

    I'm not sure this would work, but you could try sandwiching a length of wire between two pieces of paper/card (glued together) and then cut strips to create the "feathers". ... It might curl up though.

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  2. This may sound silly, but how about using actual feathers. You could dye, cut & shape them any way you need.

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