Butterfly Appendages

Hi :-)

I put this message in the General Discussion Group, but I thought I'd add it here too since the Stumpworkers would know the most about these sort of wires.

I've talked about making this butterfly in an earlier discussion. I've attached an image of the black and white drawing again. Note that the butterfly has legs, antennae and thick tendrils. I may not do the tendrils.

Any suggestions for any wired threads (or anything else) to use for these three types of appendages would be much appreciated.

I think that I need a variety of wired threads :

The butterfly body is highly sculptured in felt, so the three legs on top will stick out. They need to be of a thin wire.

The antenna could be of the same width, or thicker, and need to 'remember' one end being curled into a small circle to form the end of the antennae.

The tendrils (if I do them - I've already done the back wing as a detached piece, so it's sticking up) need to be of a wire about 3 times as thick - and be able to hold their position up in space, over the butterfly.

I've got some silk covered purl from Thistle Threads (another silk covered wire thread used for historical embroidery) but that's too limp.

The Gilt Sylke Twist is too limp as well.

I've had a look at DMC memory wire, and they don't have a colour enough slightly close to what I could use, given the project is more than half done.

Kreinik's hot wire - Chatreuse is a possibility, but I don't know how stiff it really is. Could someone that has some help me? Would it hold a curl at one end and a position in space?

Plastic coated beading wire? How stiff is that? There seems to be a good range of colours. Does it look 'cheap' (given I've got a lot of gold metal threads on the butterfly)

I could buttonhole stitch some florist's wire, but that would take forever......

Thanks so much,

Megan/Elmsley Rose

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