What a great job you did on shaping these butterflies. The bodies are beautifully formed. What was your technique for that? Did you use the metal lath? Love them, and w/be anxiously watching for how you mosaic them.

I LOVE these!!!

Aw, thanks, Slo! I cut the wings from hardware cloth. I made a pattern and ran it in two different directions so I'd get a good criss-cross. The body is just the same hardware cloth wrapped around the rebar a few times so I'd have something for the wings, antennae and concrete to grab onto.

I bent the rebar a bit because I wanted to get the effect of them fluttering. These are gifts, but I'm thinking of making a cluster of them for my own yard (future project!!! LOL) so I want them at different angles.

My only complaint so far is the wings on that one in the foreground are supposed to be bent up a little more. But when I put on the mortar, the weight brought them down a little. I could probably fix that next time by mortaring the body and base of the wings then letting it harden before mortaring the rest of the wings.

I just didn't want them to all be "flat" butterflies. I wanted them to look like they're really flying. The downside of that is I'll have to mosaic both sides.

I found the drooping effect too when I was making my fantasy flowers behind my swing. One way to keep that from happening is to wire the wings together, pulling them where you want them, mortar them first, and when dry, cut out the wire and proceed.

These are going to be great! I may just have to copy this! and I love the last message from slow; that is one reason this forum is so great. What a good idea; wire them together, mortar them, and then cut the wire. Great advice and I'm going to remember that as well. Beautiful butterflies, and fun! I'm also seeing dragonflies in our future .....

Slow, that is a great suggestion! And I need to go back to your Queendom and look up those fantasy flowers. You may have been posting them before my time!

Thanks Silvamae! I can't wait to see how they turn out. I've thought about dragonfiles as well. And maybe bumble bees or lady bugs. I love the idea of art on a stick, LOL.

I love love love these !!!! I want to do this also I love butterfly's !!!!!

I love this idea! And mosaicking both sides of the butterflies is a TREAT, not a downside. LOL They're gorgeous. Please post pictures as you progress.

OH WOW! I love these also! I feel so dumb...what is hardware cloth and what do you mean when you said you ran it in a criss cross pattern? I'm more of a visual person so I'm totally lost...sorry. BUT I WANT ONE TOO! I can hardly wait to see it all finished!