Potential New Products?

I just love my kanzashi dragonflies.

I can't even explain why, but the magnets continue to make me happy to look at every time I see them. :)

Ellie likes to snitch her favorites from my production and puts them "temporarily" on our fridge so we can admire them every time we go to open the refrigerator door or even walk past.

Ellie and some actual customers have long suggested I make brooches or hair clips with the dragonflies on them. I was a bit hesitant for two reasons: The glitterboard I use as a base for the dragonflies to perch upon would not be waterproof; and because the dragonfly bodies are attached to their wings with less than a quarter-inch of contact they can be fragile to be handled.

Well, I think I've solved the first problem!

Instead of glitterboard, these dragonflies will be perched on felt. (I used some stabilizer sandwiched between two circles of felt that I hand-sewed together.

I started out with small circles of felt no bigger than the glitterboard circles I used, but after making a prototype, I discovered that it was smaller than the brooch pin I wanted to mount it on and too much metal showed.

But I didn't like the plain felt circle base when I enlarged it, either.

My solution?

I added some beading to 'prettify' the bases. And I think it looks much better that way!

What do you think?

Now, Ellie and I will test these prototypes to figure out if the dragonflies are too fragile to wear or not.

If they are, I can try some other kanzashi wing shapes that would offer more contact surface between the body and the wings. But I'm really hoping these will work!

And either way, I'll let you know as the experiments progress.