Glow Fly
Yay! It's the last one in this series. I don't mind posting but it does take a lot of time. Trying to make a description of the build interesting can be challenging too.
As those who have followed me for awhile know I'm a bit obsessed with making mechanical insects. They are not easy to make. The legs need holes in the main body, the head needs a hole, the abdomen needs another hole. That's a lot of holes in a tiny piece of brass. The engineering is always a challenge. It does make it a bit easier if it's like this, mounted on a panel. I will make another but just anchor each piece, legs, body, head, abdomen, to the board. If I space it correctly - it will look like a joined mechanism hopefully.
I didn't use a LED for this one. I wanted it to look old, so I chose to use an incandescent globe. As it's only 3V it's not that powerful. You can really see the difference between the power use of an LED compared to old "Edison" bulbs. The light isn't the feature here - the insect is. So I didn't overly embellish the piece for that reason too.
The wings are brass charms but they are thin and fragile so I don't think they would hold up under heavy wear unsupported. As a pendant you would only have to worry about clothing or hair snags. The body is a small brass tube. I inserted four smaller tubes and poured in some resin. I drilled those out so I could thread the four legs (made from heated element wire and crimps). The wire leads from the bulb are threaded through as is the head (a heart shaped vintage copper bead) and finally to two tiny front legs/feelers. The eyes are simply phillip's head screws. The wings are screwed onto an hexagonal ring. That is attached using two more screws tightened onto the body. As the wires are so fine, I had to secure the body with an extra wire anchor so it wouldn't put any tension on the wires.
There is an obvious caveat on this piece. She is fragile. The incandescent globe will chew through batteries too. I showed this to my group of friends who meet down the dog park on Fridays for wine and snacks. It was the favourite of many. I'm looking forward to making more fantasy insects that won't really resemble any real species on our planet.
