So you want to make flat fairy or butterfly wings, kinda like the ones on Summer Wing Ponies? And you want to use Angelina/Fantasy Film to make them super-duper glamorous?
I am here to help! Let's get this done!
This
is gonna be kinda quick and dirty. I didn't take progress pics while making these since I never thought I'd do a tutorial, so I apologize for that. You just get lots of pics of finished wings, very pretty. I will answer questions if you have them, as best I can.
These are very large wings for a mummified fairy gaff I made a while back, so keep in mind that wings for a pony would probably be about half to a third or less this size. You could get more pairs of wings from your transparency film, and I highly recommend this because that stuff is expensive.
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Naamah Darling, on Flickr
What You Will Need:You need to know that you can do this. No, really, you can. I just wanted to throw that out there.
A wing template. You can search for and download these or you can draw your own in a paint program if you are good at that sort of thing, which is what I did. You can use a black and white template, and all that will show through will be the Fantasy Film. You can also use a color template, and the Fantasy Film will give it an iridescent shine underneath. I used a colored-in template that had a lot of blue and green, and I used a blue-green color of Fantasy Film. Make sure you think about how you will attach your wings, and if you need a tab or something to affix a wire to, draw that in to make room for it! I didn't do that here because it wasn't necessary for what I was doing. If you need one, make SURE it's there! SO IMPORTANT.
A printer. Any kind. If you want color wings, you will need a color printer, obviously. And it would be good if the printer actually, you know,
worked.
Printable transparency film! Inkjet transparency film, if you have an inkjet printer. Laser if you have a laser printer. Inkjet can be really hard to find, and it can be pricy. Try eBay for small lots of ten or a dozen sheets. Make SURE you get inkjet transparency film for an inkjet! Super important! The ink will come off of anything else. Make sure to print the design on the rougher side of the film, to hold the ink.
Fantasy Film/Angelina Film. Magical iridescent magicness! Any color you want! Artglitter.com sells it, as does eBay seller Morezmore. I found some mylar gift wrap tissue at the dollar store that is a whole lot like Fantasy Film. It comes in LARGE sheets, two or four to a bag. It would probably work for flat wings like this, though I don't know about the heat-shrunk kind of tattered wings. I'm throwing this out there as a cheaper, easier to find alternative that MIGHT work. Worth trying, I just haven't tried yet. I will let you know when I do!
Spray adhesive, high-quality. High quality stuff dries a little cloudy, but lower-quality stuff dries REALLY cloudy. You want translucence! Get the good stuff. (Sorry! I know we aren't rich folks. At least I'm not. Coupon time!)
Scissors or a craft knife. Sharp and small.
Totally Optional But I'm Crazy So I Did This:Black dimensional paint. Paint that will hold its shape. Regular acrylics won't. You want Gallery Glass, puffy foam glue/paint, or anything else that will hold its shape and not spread when you squeeze it out onto the wing. You will use this for veining. You can use a different color if you want. I used black.
The patience of Job. You will need this if you do the raised veining. A really varied swearing vocabulary helps alleviate boredom. Take lessons from a pirate ahead of time if you can.
Spray sealer. Ideally in two finishes, one shinier than the other.
Got all that? Okay!
Let's get started!The wings are simple: two pieces of inkjet transparency film sandwiched over a layer of Fantasy Film. In theory, you could make a set of these wings using just that information. I am going to try to be more helpful.
Print two sets of wings. One will become the front, one will become the back.
Drying time! Inkjet ink stays tacky on the transparency sheets for a long, long time. Dry them someplace where dust won't settle on them. Or cat hair. I left mine alone for two days. (If all you want is wings, and no Fantasy Film, you can spray the ink side down with sealer and carry on. You don't need two layers.)
Time to glue them together! Work in a place free of dust on a smooth surface you have wiped down to be sure that there's no grit or anything on it. Keep pets away. Plastic attracts pet hair like a magnet!
Without cutting out the wings, spray the ink side of one set with high-quality spray adhesive (again, not the Aleene's stuff, which is great for most stuff I use it for, but the artist's stuff that's way more expensive, but also way thinner and waaaay more transparent). If you've wisely crammed a bunch of wings close together to get the most of your transparency film, you may need to cut them out roughly for this step, because it makes laying down the Fantasy Film in a uniform direction on each wing way easier!
Apply the Fantasy Film in strips to the PRINTED side of the wing. The ink needs to be in the middle of the sandwich! Lay it over the wings, making sure to lay it in the same direction along each wing, relative to the wing itself, so that the wings match. Fantasy Film has a kind of streaky grain to its iridescence, so be conscious of that. On flat wings like this, you can see the difference!
Lay down the Fantasy Film from one edge with one hand and sort of rub and push it into place with the fingers of your other hand so that you aren't leaving air bubbles. Air bubbles can be pushed out toward the edges of the wings. Persistent ones could probably be pricked with a pin or craft knife and squished out.
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Naamah Darling, on Flickr
Here you can really see the iridescence. This is why we use better spray glue, so that it won't cloud this up too much! Fabulous!
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Put them together! Cut out the first AND second set of wings really roughly, leaving a wide margin around each. Spray the second set with adhesive. Look through both sets of wings at a light and align the edges as closely possible before pressing them together. Lay them under some newspaper and burnish over them gently to set the glue and to push out any air bubbles. Let 'em dry for a while.
Cut them out! Cut around the borders with very sharp scissors as close as you can. If you are better with a craft knife, use that! I am not good with craft knives. Ask my left index finger.
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Now for the optional bits!Do you want raised veins on your wings? My wings were too flat for my liking. I needed them to look lifelike because they were for a gaff/prop that needed to look real; if you like your wings the way they are, there's no need for this part and you can skip it, saving some sanity and a lot of time. Mine needed veining.
I found some stuff that is sold as craft foam glue that you can write and draw with as well. It's very soft and about the consistency of bottled acrylic paint, but holds its shape much better. At Michaels I found a set of tiny bottles with tiny detachable tips, almost like the tips on syringes. I don't think I could have done this without those tiny tips. Find something similar if you can. The regular tips for Gallery Glass or the glue stuff were small, but still way too big for this.
Fill the bottles with the glue/paint and draw the veins on. Work top to bottom, side to side, and be careful not to smear it. Clean up small mistakes with damp cotton swabs, rolling the swab as you swipe it over the mistake, so you don't just smear it. Dried mistakes can be scraped with a fingernail or trimmed away with a craft knife. It dries pretty quickly. Do one side, turn them over and do the other. Then do the edges, around the outside of the wing. Put it on top of something like a couple of pop bottle caps that will keep the wet wing edges off the table while it dries, 'cause you don't wanna hold them that whole time!
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Naamah Darling, on Flickr
Up close, I didn't get them aligned perfectly, and in a couple of places I put the veins on one side of the wing in a different place. Try not to do this, obviously, but if you do, don't worry about it! It's highly likely that your wings will be so awesome, nobody will ever, ever notice! Did you notice before I pointed it out? I thought not, and there you go.
Now that you are done, seal your wings! You don't
have to do this if you didn't put veins on your wings, but it still looks nice. Spray one side of the wings with shiny sealer. This will be the top, visible from above if you are doing a pony. Let that dry, then (optional) spray the other side with a flat sealer. Butterfly wings are duller on the underside, after all.
Oh, hey! We're done! Holy cow, you have awesome butterfly wings! Won't your pony be surprised?
Good luck and I hope you enjoyed! If you have other questions, I will try to answer them! I want everyone to be able to make pretty wings for their ponies!
Next time I do wings, I will try to remember to get progress shots and edit this.
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