I’ve made fairy wings for dragons a few times now. With my recent fairy dragon, I thought it might be a good opportunity to include a blog post showing how I do them.
My biggest problem with using fantasy film (or Angelina film) has always been with how delicate they are. They’re absolutely beautiful to look at, but I haven’t been brave enough to try and ship them yet.
I experimented with some different methods this time around, and I think they really help with making sure the wire stays secured to the film.
Today, I’m presenting 2 options for you to try!
Supplies:
Glue method:
- Wire (I’m using 18 gauge)
- Wire cutters, needle nose pliers
- Angelina film (or fantasy film)
- Tacky glue
- Scissors
- Candle and lighter (not shown)
UV resin method:
- Everything listed above plus UV resin and a UV light source
- Toothpick to spread the resin
Both methods start the same way, so I’ll split into their differences at the end.
For this tutorial, we’re going to keep the wing shape simple. Once you’ve practiced the technique, feel free to look at images of fairies to inspire a wing shape!
Step 1: Shape the top part your your wing
The structure of the wing is dominated by 2 pieces of wire. For the top one, we’re going to cut a longer piece. The length will depend on how big you want your fairy wing to be, and if you decide you want it smaller, you can always cut down your wire a bit.
Since we’re making 2 wings, cut 2 pieces of wire that are the same in size.
Using the needle nose pliers, grab one end of your wire and start curling it around the pliers until you have almost a full circle. If you’re using a thinner wire like I am, you should be able to do this next part with your fingers.
Grabbing onto the circle, continue bending the wire around it to make a loose spiral. They should look like this.
Then add a slight curve to the rest of the wire.
Step 2: Shape the buttom part of your wing
This will essentially be the same as step 1, except you’lll do this to 2 slightly shorter pieces of wire to create the bottom part of the wing.
So you should have something that looks like this.
Step 3: Plan your wing shape
Once your wires are cut and shaped, it’s time to lay the 2 pieces out together to see how they look.
If you’re going to be sticking these into a sculpture, you’ll want to place the bottom wire so that it doesn’t meet up with the end of the top wire. There should be extra top wire to act as someting to anchor into the sculpture. If you’re going to attach these by gluing them against something, then you could have the ends meet.
I decided here that my bottom wire was too long (I like this wing shape to have the top swirl sticking further out than the bottom).
This is the wing placement I settled on.
Step 4: Prepare your fantasy film
In the video, I used more area than needed, but I wanted to make sure it showed up well on camera.
Lay your wing pieces out onto your fantasy film to see how much you will need. Cut out a separate piece for each wing, one that is about 1/2″ longer around the entire wing so you’ll have enough space to glue the wire in place.
Don’t worry about shaping it at this step. Just cut out a square or rectangle big enough for your wings to fit on.
Step 5: Glue your wires
Now it’s time to anchor the wires down well enough to shape the wings later. To do this, I pick up my top wire and squeeze the Tacky Glue onto it. It dries clear, so cover it liberally.
Place it glue side down on your film. Make sure you leave enough room for your bottom wire and then repeate this process with the bottom wire.
Once both wires are placed, add some extra glue to where the bottom wire meets the top one.
Tip: If your wire swirl isn’t flat when you do this step, you’ll have parts of your wire that won’t adhere well to the film. Flatten the swirl against a table or other hard, flat surface to make sure the wire is event.
Step 6: Let the glue dry
Let the glue dry. Depending on how much you apply, you may need to wait overnight for it to dry completely. It needs to be sturdy for this next step, so do not rush this!
Step 7: Trim out the wings
The fun part of playing with fantasy film comes with this next part. Trim the film about 1/4″ around your wire so you have a little film border.
Step 8: Work the magic!
This step will probably take a little practice, and lots of patience. Light your candle. If it has multiple wicks like mine does, only light one. We need to be able to control the direction of the heat, so having multiple going will affect that.
Hold your wing high over the flame with a wire edge facing down toward the flame. Slowly move it closer to the flame until you notice the film shrinking up around the wire. Do this very slowly! And continuously move your wing back and forth to distribute the heat.
If you hold one part of the flame over the heat for too long, you’ll burn holes through it. This can make some really neat effects for wings, but if you’re not wanting this look, keep moving your wing.
Continue rotating your wing until the film has shrunk up around the wire around the whole wing. I also like to turn the wing so it’s perpendicular to the flame and move it over the flame too. This helps tighten up the film in the middle of your wing, and depending on the film, can bring out some really cool color effects!
Step 9: Adding extra wire security
Up until this point, no matter which option you go for, the process is the same. However, depending on what you have available to you and how secure you need these wings to be, here are 2 different options!
For secure, but I’m-not-sure-how-they’d-hold-up-shipping secure, I go back in with my Tacky glue and lay a really thick layer over the entire wing. The wire is completely covered in glue, even when it dries, so it’s harder to peel away from the film. You could even repeat this in a couple of layers.
For super secure, I decided to try UV resin. I tested it a little bit before I put it on my wing, and the heat did pull the film tight, so I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t open up any holes while curing.
To do this, I placed my UV resin down and spread it out with a toothpick. I did quick burts of curing with the UV torch so that I wouldn’t overheat the film. Once the initial curing was done, I set it under the UV light for a longer period of time to complete the cure.
I’m quite pleased with how the UV resin method turned out. One thing to note is that you need to make sure you’ve done all of your flame work with the wing before adding the resin. The resin will probably burn over the flame, so that should be the very last step before you’re ready to use it!
Here’s the sculpture I made recently with fairy wings. These wings are secured with the glue method since they have holes in them, but the resin method could be used as long as you’re mindful of where the resin is spelling. You could even use it to fill the holes for extra stability!
