Birth of a Butterfly

In the wake of the bird on a branch picture not working out, I wanted a quick project to get me back on my feet. I found a pattern for a butterfly online that made me pretty happy and I set out to make one for Katriel today. It took about 3 hours from cutting the pattern to finishing.

Here are the pattern pieces cut out and positioned,

And my choice of glass for the wings and body.

Next I glued the pieces of pattern to the glass,

...and held my breath a couple of times. (That's poor technique, by the way. Don't use this as a tutorial!)

Once all the pieces were cut out, I layed them back out to keep them in order. Each piece needed to be ground so it would fit together.

After grinding, I wrapped each piece in copper foil. I also cursed a lot because I don't like my table foiler very much. 

I nailed down each of the wings to get them ready to solder together.

It took a while to solder (I need more practice!) but I managed to get it together and attach hanging loops.

After soldering, I cleaned it and added a chemical to give the solder a brown patina. 

And briefly, it found a home in my kitchen until Katriel begged to have it hung in her bedroom!