Bugs!!

I heart bugs!  And I mean the real live six-legged creatures.  I do prefer true insects to the more colloquial "bugs", but for the most part anything spineless with lots of legs will do.  Don't like silver fish and roaches though.  That's all a bit off topic here...  A few weeks ago I was talking to someone about dragonfly brooches.  After that conversation, I was inspired and I wanted to make a little dragonfly.

These two little guys are from DS9 designs.  Luckily I was planning a trip to Michael's anyways (I wanted to buy a new eye liner brush...) so I was able to pick up some beads to use for the wings.  This was the only size they had - I think they're a bit small.  I also saw these green/blue beads that I wanted for the eyes.  Last year I saw a dragonfly on my house with the exact same color of eyes!  The beads are a bit big, but unfortunately they did not have the same color in a smaller size.  

I also changed the working order slightly.  The original design calls for a SCMR (thorax) with a ring thrown off for the head and finishing off the abdomen with a chain.  Since I do not like ending with a chain, I decided to start with a chain, do a split ring for the thorax and finish off with the head.  Starting with a chain is not all that much better (I normally don't start with continuous method), but still better than ending with the chain.  Doing it in this order also allowed me to finish off one thread when working the head so I only had 1 end to sew in!

Two weekends ago I made the ecru critter.  As I said, the wings are too small and the eyes too big, but I think he's cute:)  I didn't like the little picot at the start.  The little guy probably won't see any rough play, but it is easy to imagine the first know sliding off and thus undoing the whole chain.  I decided a bead would be a good starting point - it would also replace the safety pin I was using to start the chain.  Last weekend I made the black buggy and I really like how the way the bead at the tip of the abdomen looks!

Both critters are made with DMC 80.