Photo of real Glasswing Butterfly
The Exquisite ‘Glasswing Butterfly’
A friend of mine sent me a picture
of a rarely seen Glasswing Butterfly. “Glasswing” is an appropriate name
for the butterfly, but it is not a name I concocted for this newsletter!
Glasswing Butterfly is really its most common name; the “official”
name is Greta Oto. It is a brush-footed butterfly that is found in
Mexico and Central America. I loved the picture the moment I saw it!
Photo of real Glasswing Butterfly
After my initial “WOW”, I asked myself, “Wouldn’t this make a great project to offer to our readers?” Why not design a three-dimensional model, not life-size (which is just a few inches wide), but a full fourteen inches across, made of forty-seven pieces of glass (plus four legs and feelers) and offer it in Dimensions in Glass? Great idea, I agreed with myself.
Glasswing Butterfly
sculpture standing on a table
The photo above is the sculpture we created. Note the “invisible” seams on the wings, which make it look even more like the real Glasswing Butterfly! Invisible seams are seams that have a minimum amount of solder showing on the surfaces of the glass; the only solder you will be able to see is in between the two adjacent edges of glass. That makes the seams almost invisible, just perfect for the clear-glass portion of the wings; the illustrated instructions give you all the details. You do not have to do the seams this way if you do not want to; you can do the seams the traditional way, using copper foil and a bead of solder.
Sculpture hanging on
wall
The four legs, made of eighth-inch brass rod, will enable Glasswing Butterfly to sit on any flat surface. Place it next to some silk flowers and it will look like it does in its natural environment. As an alternative way of displaying it, solder a brass washer or a copper ring to the end of one of the legs and hang it on a wall. You make the two antennae from copper wire. The nicest part of doing this sculpture is that it is not difficult. The Comparative Time Rating is only 2.4; with the invisible seams, it is 2.5. You will need glass and eighth-inch brass rod, which is noted in the instructions, in addition to the usual foil, flux, and patina.
Order your Glasswing Butterfly Manual now!