bowling ball garden bees wings

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Creating the wings for the bowling ball bees was the hardest part of the project, but they looked wonderful in the end. Be sure to have your window screen (8.5″) and hardware cloth (9.5″) squares cut and ready to go. Get your 20″ and 22″ lengths of wire and put them in two separate piles. Bend each wire into an oval shape, then bend the ends down 1.5″ to fit into the finger holes.

Your 20″ ovals will get the window screen sewn onto them using the fishing line. Center the copper wire over the screen because it is easier to sew from the underside of the wing. Then trim around the edges making sure not to cut too close to the fishing line.

The 22″ ovals will get the hardware cloth. This was trickier, and I found that the fishing line was not necessary to sow the hardware cloth onto the copper wire. You need to trim the edges of the hardware cloth first, and bend the wire ends over the copper wire to hold it in place. This leaves nice soft edges so that you don’t scrape yourself on the wire ends.

I was so excited to finish the wings and start assembling my bees, they were getting closer to the finish line!

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under art & design tutorials.