Dragonfly and Flowers Mixed Media on Canvas

Mixed media art uses a variety of materials and textures to tell a story both in design and mood. There's a lot of layering of papers, paints, stamps, metal, plastic, wood, or items found in nature that helps tell a complete story. Putting these different layers on requires a knowledge of which adhesives will work best to create a long-lasting work of art.

I most often like to pick a subject to focus on when I create art. A raven, a flower, a bug, or tree. Something that will grab the attention and lead the viewer into the piece. That's what I did with this project. Along the way I tried different textures and surfaces to enhance the piece. 

For this piece I decided to use the outline of a dragonfly I drew for a multi-layered laser cut wall art piece, add flowers blowing in the breeze at the bottom, and start creating.

I added paper, card stock, metal charms, beads, crackle paste, gels, glaze, and more to create this dragonfly art. Let's explore the best ways to get these various surfaces and textures to adhere to the canvas for a permanent work of art that will last ages.

Materials

• 9" x 12" stretched canvas
• Acrylic paint for background (I'm using thalo green, deep purple, turquoise, navy blue, and off-white)
• Crackle paste
• Glazing medium
• Gloss heavy gel
• Glitter card stock (I'm using a dark teal)
• Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue
• Patterned papers in various greens for grass and flower stems
• Patterned paper in off white for wings
• Mod Podge Matte
• Acrylic matte varnish
• 16 gauge aluminum wire
• Beads of various sizes and colors for flowers (I'm using a variety of purple shades) and other decorations if wanted
• Star charms
• 5 6mm jump rings
• Jewelry chain
• E6000
• Glass beads texture gel
• 22 or 24 gauge wire
• Triangle hangers (with screws)

Tools

• Palette knife
• Paint brushes (a bright one for painting the background and a flat one for Mod Podge and varnish)
• Natural sponge
• Paper towels
• Cricut or other cutting machine
• Scissors for cutting paper
• Side or flush cutter
• Round-nose pliers
• Bench block
• Bent chain-nose pliers
• Toothpicks (optional)
• Ruler
• Drill (optional)
• Screwdriver (if not using drill)

Keeping things in order

Because I have a basic design idea in mind and some thoughts about which materials to use to create the design, I thought it best to start with a plan. Some mediums I want to use should go on first, others absolutely last. 

I wanted to recreate a memory of a time I was watering my backyard at night and disturbed a dragonfly sitting on the ground. It flew up and landed on my leg and stayed there the whole time I went about watering. It was an electric blue color, glittery and gorgeous.

I have glitter card stock I thought would be best for the dragonfly's body. I have tons of patterned scrapbooking papers to do the leaves and flower stems at the bottom of the canvas with. I like to work with patterned papers to add a bit of romance, mystery, and movement to my art.

The area where I was watering had tons of little purple flowers, so I thought I could use a bag full of mismatched purple beads I have to represent the flowers.

I have some bronze star charms that I could hang from the top by chain. I like the idea of hanging them because it seems like I'm setting a scene for a play. 

It was summer and the ground was parched, so I thought I could represent that with crackle paste in the background.

And I wanted to outline the wings with wire that I put some swirls in to bring in a Starry Night feel to the piece. 

This is the very beginning of what I was planning, but I know from experience I will need to add the crackle paste first (because it's an opaque white and I'll need to cover it with color). Then I will need to put down all my flat pieces like the paint and papers. And I will need to seal those before putting on raised elements like the stars, beads, and wire. 

I drew up a basic idea of the design I had in my head as a guide for me to look at while I create (first image above). 

Testing out some ideas

Before I start putting any paint or other media on my canvas, I want to test some things out. I know how most of the mediums work, but I always like to try them out in new ways. It's good to know how they react under different circumstances.

Specifically, I wanted to test my idea of wrapping wire around the wings and covering the paper of the wings with glass beads texture gel. I've used glass beads mixed with paint on canvas to create a sandy beach scene, but I've never put it directly on top of paper and have never tried to confine it within a space. 

I also wanted to test if the E6000 would discolor paint on the canvas. I've only ever used it for jewelry, not on a painted canvas. I tested a couple other glues as well to see if they might be better for the painted canvas surface.

Finally, I wanted to test the acrylic matte varnish on top of the card stock that I don't plan to coat with Mod Podge first. I want to make sure it won't damage the paper or discolor it.

I had an old painted canvas I had practiced on that I used as my testing ground for this project. 

Running the tests

The first thing I did was test gluing down some chain link with Loctite Vinyl, Fabric & Plastic flexible adhesive, No Run Gel Super Glue, and E6000. 

For the wing test, I used the ends of the aluminum wire that were already bent. I curled one end into a swirl and hammered it flat on my bench block. I used the other bent end to create a mini wing and hammered it out flat, as well. 

I glued the swirl down to the canvas with E6000 and let it dry while I worked on the paper wing. 

I flipped the metal wing backwards and laid it on the back of my off-white type-covered paper. I traced the inside of the wing on the paper, then cut around it leaving extra space outside the tracing line. I used Mod Podge to glue that to the canvas, and painted over the top of it with more Mod Podge. I let that dry about 15 minutes and then glued the metal wing on top with E6000. 

While that was drying I scooped out some glass beads gel with a palette knife and spread it into the swirl. I used my finger to flatten it as much as I could and wiped the metal clean.

Then I spread more glass beads gel inside the wing on top of the paper. I smoothed it with my finger and wiped the metal clean. Then I let everything dry overnight. 

What I learned

The Loctite discolored the paint giving it a yellowish appearance. The Super Glue dulled the surface. The E6000 actually did a fantastic job of holding the chain in place and didn't make itself too obvious. As long as I clean up around it, it should work fine. I was even able to hold the canvas up by the chain with no tearing. This is, however, a very small canvas, so I won't do that with the real art.

The glass beads gel dried clear in both tests, providing a bubbly look. It was hard to see when there wasn't paper under it (inside the swirl), but it still sparkled when I turned the canvas back and forth under a light. 

On top of the paper surface, you could really see the texture. It blurred the words underneath but that made it all the more obvious it was there. I liked it!

The varnish did a great job over the unprotected glitter card stock. I put two coats on top and it turned out fine. 

Now I feel safe in moving forward with the art.

To represent the heat of summer, I thought I could use crackle paste rising up from the bottom and thinning out as it reaches the night sky. I was watering my very parched backyard, so this seemed the best way to represent that activity that led me to meet the electric blue dragonfly.

Crackle paste can be fragile on a cloth surface. It's also opaque so it would cover up anything I have under it. That's why I want to put it on the very bottom. I can maintain the look of the cracks by thinning the paint I use over it with glazing medium. Painting over it will also protect the crackle paste from flaking off even though it is on a soft, flexible surface.

I want to apply the crackle paste away from the hard edges of the canvas frame in more of a puddle around the bottom. I can thin it around the frame just as I planned to thin it as it leads to the sky. Not having it spread over the wood frame will keep it from developing obvious cracks along the edge which would create a box shape I don't want. Crackle paste will glue itself to the canvas (since it's a paste), but the paint and sealant we add later will add an extra layer of adhesive to keep it where it is.

I use a palette knife to spread the crackle paste on. The thicker areas will develop thicker, more obvious cracks. The thinner areas won't show as many cracks but will still provide texture to the art.

The directions say to allow up to 3 days for the paste to dry completely, but I live in a dry climate, so it's ready to go after I let it dry overnight. You can tell it's ready when all the cracks appear.

I don't want to simply paint the night sky black because I want the iridescent colors of the dragonfly I met to be represented in the sky. I want the magic of the moment to shine. 

Preparing my palette

Glazing medium will make paint more fluid without altering its pigment when mixed appropriately. Glazing medium also has the advantage of extending working time. Too much glazing medium will make it feel like you're just pushing paint around but it's not sticking well. We're going to use these attributes to our advantage in order to get the cracks in the crackle paste to show vibrantly.

In my palette, I add a dollop of thalo green paint in three separate cups. In one of those cups, I add a few drops of glazing medium. In the second cup, I add a ratio of 1:3 glazing medium to paint, and in the last one I add a ratio of 1:1 glazing medium to paint. That last cup is the "too much" cup. I mix each cup well with a clean palette knife.

Then in a few more cups, I add the dark purple paint, the turquoise paint, and the navy blue paint. With a clean palette knife, I scoop gloss heavy gel (almost a 1:1 ratio with the paint) into each of those cups and mix it thoroughly with the paint. I want these to be ready to go once I'm done painting over the crackle paste. 

I have a damp paper towel ready to tap off excess paint on the canvas if needed, and I also have a small cup of water nearby to rinse or add water to the paint to thin it.

Covering the crackle paste

I load my paint brush with the 1:1 glazing medium to green paint mix, wipe off excess on the edge of the cup, and paint briskly back and forth over the crackle paste. The goal is to get the color to seep down into the cracks while leaving less color on the surface. I don't necessarily want the white to be prevalent but I do want the cracks to be darker than the surface.

I keep swiping my paint brush across the surface making sure to fill all the cracks. Then I dip my brush in the 1:3 ratio and paint around the edges and bottom. I use the first cup with the minimal amount of glazing medium to paint the bottom and sides of the canvas, only as high as the green goes on the top of the canvas. When I'm done painting the sides, I will use the brush to lightly paint over the surface of the crackle paste again to add more color but not dominate with it.

Then I dip the tip of my paint brush in the water cup and stir it into the 1:1 ratio again. I scrub the paint into the crackle paste to tint it green and cover most of the white areas. Now that the cracks are filled with paint, it's OK to go over the paste with watered down paint. You don't want to use water on unprotected crackle paste, however, as it will ruin the effect.

Movin' on up

Next I dip my green paint-covered brush into the purple paint, and blend it onto the canvas in side to side swishes to create a gradient blend of the two colors. I paint down over the sides as well. 

I keep dipping into the purple and painting up into the sky area. Then I dip my brush into the turquoise paint and create a new gradient blend of the purple and turquoise. I brush down the sides too. 

I keep going with the turquoise and finally dip into the navy blue to paint the top of the sky and top and side of the canvas. 

After the whole canvas (including the sides) is painted, I wash my paint brush. I decide the purple doesn't blend nicely into the green just above crackle paste area, so I create a mix of the purple and thalo green paint with a little water added and swipe that over the lower purple edge. I tap out some of the darker paint with my damp paper towel. Then I let it dry completely.

HINT: I was really rough with my paint brush working on this background. After washing the paint out, I add hair conditioner to the brush and work it through really well. I rinse it, blot most of the water out, and let it dry. This will keep it from getting too brittle and helps all my brushes last longer (real hair and synthetic brushes).

While the canvas is drying, I work on the paper cutting and wire shaping.

Because this design is based on another dragonfly piece I created, the body is already drawn for me. All I need to do is create an SVG in this new size to cut on the Cricut. I am including an SVG and PDF below.

After I cut the dragonfly, I hold him above the painted canvas to see how he looks. He matches the colors really, really well. Too well. I don't think he'll stand out. So, I am going to add a glow later. Before I can do that, I need to have the wings done so I know exactly where the dragonfly's body will be.

So, we'll move on to cutting the grass for now. I have 5 shades of green paper I want to cut the blades of grass and flower stems from. I really want the flower stems to stand out, so I plan to use the lightest greens exclusively for them.

The shapes are pretty simple, so rather than use the Cricut (especially with 5 different colors of paper), I just cut them in a variety of widths, heights, and curves, and will test out various arrangements with them all before gluing anything down. I hold my papers above the background to give me an idea of how tall I can cut the grass and stems. I cut way more than I need just to be sure I can have a nice arrangement. Whatever I don't use, I will save for another project. 

When I'm done cutting them, I rip a tiny bit of the bottoms of all of them off (while the backs are still facing me). This helps them blend better into the background when I glue them on, rather than having that sharp cut at the bottom. And because they will be so close to the bottom edge of the canvas, this will also keep them from peeling up later as the ripped areas mesh with the canvas surface better.

Forming the wire

I'm including a PDF of the actual size dragonfly to help form the wire wings. I printed it out and used a marker to draw out a shape that included the swirls I want in the wire. I want to make it one long wire piece for each wing, so I have the swirls meet at a point that seems wide enough to fit them both without interfering with the bent areas.

I took my 16 gauge aluminum wire and straightened out a long section using a soft cloth to pull along the wire. I don't cut it off the spool yet because I want to get the shape down first.

I laid the wire down on my drawing to bend it into the shape I need. Rather than worry about forming the swirls just yet, I left about an inch extra at the beginning. I bent it sharply where it met the dragonfly's body, brought the wire back to the other end, and added another inch before cutting it with my side cutters.

I do the same with the lower right wing. Then I do both those shapes again for the other side. Because they're going to be mirror image, I can use the same drawings on the right side to form the left wings.

To form the swirls (see Diagram 1 above), I grasp one end of the wire with round-nose pliers to start to curl it back toward the inside. I lay it down on my drawing again to help guide me on how much to curl it up. Then I use my round nose pliers again to keep rolling it in on itself until I get the size I want. I keep checking the wing against my printout to make sure I'm maintaining the shape and size I want. These swirls aren't going to go more than one loop around, but if they did, I would use flat-nose pliers to keep the coil flat while using my fingers to keep curling the wire around (like the diagram shows).

The swirled ends won't need to come together right now because we are going to hammer this wire flat and it needs space to spread out. 

I swirl the ends of all four wire wings, checking them against the printout and each other to try to keep the mirror image ones relatively uniform in shape.

Hammering the wings out

My bench block is just a block of steel and doesn't have rubber feet, so I fold up a felt sheet and put that under the block to soften the noise level. I have just a regular hammer, nothing special, but it serves me well. 

You can start wherever you like to hammer the wings out, but keep eying the edges to make sure they're all about level. It's best to start in one area and move around the piece at a regular pace, maintaining the same movement and rotation so you can be sure you aren't flattening some areas more than others (unless you want to). Don't hammer in one spot for too long. Just hammer around the piece, then go back around again and again to maintain evenness and prevent breakage. 

If the shape starts to distort, just ease the piece back to the shape you want before continuing to hammer.

When you're happy with the thickness, you can move on to the next wing. Try to maintain the same thickness and shape for all the wings. I continually placed the ones that are supposed to be mirror images on top of each other to keep them consistent.

The paper wings

Because each wing was hand formed and will have slight differences in shape, we're going to need to draw each paper wing individually using the wire wings as our templates.

Flip all the wire wings so that the backs of them are facing up. Place each one on the back of the paper you will use for the wings. Trace along the inside of each wing on the paper. 

Now, before you cut these out, we will want them to be slightly bigger so the edges tuck under the metal wings when we glue them on. You'll want to add 1-2mm of space outside of the traced areas, depending on how wide the wire is now that it has been hammered. The wider it is, the more space you can add. If you need to, you can trim off excess paper but you can't really add it if you cut it too small. 

After you cut the paper, place each on top of the wings they go with to make sure they all fit inside nicely. If you cut too much extra space around the outside edges, trim them so they fit.

In order to remember which paper wings go with which metal wings, I flip around the right side ones and mark the backs of the paper wings lightly with an R (inside where the swirls will cover it) and the backs of the metal ones with 2 dots using a permanent marker. 

Apparently I wasn't careful and cut all the pieces with the words upside down, but my earlier test of the glass beads gel shows they will all be kind of blurred anyway, so I'm not going to recut them.

Now that we know exactly how big the wings are (mine turned out bigger than I planned), we can add the glow that will help the glitter paper show up better. 

If you used a high-contrast color for your dragonfly that doesn't blend into the background paint, you can skip this step.

Prep work

I use my Cricut to cut the dragonfly body on regular copy paper with the SVG provided in Step 4. I place that on top of my canvas and put it where I think it should go.

Then I place the metal wings on top where I think they look best and adjust the placement of the whole dragonfly to make sure everything fits on the canvas nicely. I have a printout of the art with a grid on it next to me to help me get it in the best location. I am including that as a PDF below.

Then I carefully remove the metal wings, making sure not to move the paper body.

On my palette, I put a tiny bit of turquoise and deep purple paint (the same I used in the background) and mix in twice as much off-white so that I get a pastel version of the background paint closest to where the dragonfly's body is. Then I add water to the mixture so that it is really drippy. 

I wet my sponge and a paper towel and squeeze off excess water. I keep the paper towel near me to tap off paint as I work. 

Tapping it out

First I dip my sponge into the drippy pastel paint, squeeze out excess, and dab around the outside edges of the paper dragonfly body. Then I remove the paper body, take my paper towel, and go back over that area so the glow is really faint. 

I dip my sponge in the paint again, squeeze off excess, and dab around the same area again (getting inside where the paper covered up before). I tap back over the area again with the paper towel if the glow seems to be too heavy. 

My sponge is really old and leaves a repeated pattern, so I make sure to twist my wrist so the markings look more random and natural.

It probably seems senseless to paint and then wipe it off again, but you'd be surprised how bright (and obvious) the paint can get when you don't dab off the excess immediately. This liquidy paint dries very quickly. Also, the glow shouldn't seem obtrusive. You just want the area behind the dragonfly's body to be lighter so the body will stand out more against the dark background. We don't need it behind the wings because those are white and will be surrounded by silver metal.

Because the paint dries quickly you can keep testing your glitter dragonfly body over the area to make sure you are getting the right amount of glow you want. When you're done, let it dry a couple hours before moving on to the next step.

Dragonfly first

Since the dragonfly is the focal point and all the other elements' locations are based around it, it's best to glue it down first.

We know where the body will go because of the glow we added in the last step. I place it down and put the metal wings back in place to make sure it's in the right location. Then I remove the wings and set them aside.

I use Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue because it's thick and will fill in the space in the texture underneath to hold the card stock to the canvas. Spread glue directly from the bottle onto the back to cover it up, using your fingers to cover the outer edges and thin legs. 

Place it inside the glow, shifting it as needed to get it into place, and hold it there for about 20-30 seconds. Let it dry for about 5 minutes before moving on to the paper wings. 

To place the wings, first lay the metal wings down where you had them before when we were deciding where to paint the glow. Then carefully slip the paper wings underneath and get them in their proper locations. Remove the metal wings (third image above).

Then dip a flat-tipped paint brush into Mod Podge Matte, lift a wing, paint the canvas surface under it as well as the back of the wing (all the way to the edges). Then place the wing back onto the canvas, smooth it down, and paint glue around the outside edges to keep it in place. Paint an even coat over the surface of the wing as well. Do this with all 4 paper wings.

Grass and stems

We're just going to go with instinct for the most part since we have so much grass to place. 

First I want to test the stems in various locations, knowing I will be putting beads on top of them. I don't want them hitting the dragonfly. I am also keeping in mind the number of beads, large and small, I have to place. My Illustrator design shows 10 stems. It also shows 24 beads, most of them small. When I get to placing beads, I'll be going by instinct then too, but I need to make sure I will have enough for the number of stems I place now, at least. 

I also have to be wary of some extra rough patches where I have my crackle paste below. The stems and grass aren't too big, so it won't be that big of a problem, but having a piece of paper just barely touch a raised edge below will create a problem in adhesion.

So, I place down all my lightest green papers meant to represent the stems in places where they will work well. I decide to just go with 8 stems because more than that seemed crowded. I take a few other colored blades of grass to tuck behind some of the stems to give them some depth.

Then I start from the left, picking up a piece of grass or stem, painting the area with Mod Podge, then the back of the paper, and placing the paper back down as I had it before. 

With a rough, bumpy surface like this, in addition to painting the glue on in the background and covering the whole back of the paper, we want to paint the glue on top of the blades pretty thick to help them mold themselves over the bumps. And for added protection, I paint the brush over the edges crosswise to create a seal between the edges and the canvas. 

Once I get the stem and background grasses done, I will just start adding more blades of grass where I think they look good, mixing up colors and lengths.

You're going to be getting glue all over your hand as you paint it onto each grass blade. When the glue starts to dry it will glob onto the paper surface creating ugly, sticky lumps. I keep a damp towel nearby to wipe my hand on, but when it starts getting really sticky, I just stop and go to the sink to clean it all off. 

Once I'm happy with my final arrangement, I let everything dry overnight.

The varnish is really drippy, so you want a brush that won't soak it in a bunch. I use a flat brush that I can scrape easily on the edge of the bottle to get rid of the excess.

NOTE: The bottle says to make sure the paint is dry for at least 72 hours. At this point the background paint has been dry for 3 days. The glow I added the day before was severely watered down paint, so it was dry within minutes. I let the Mod Podge dry overnight. I have used the varnish over a painted surface covered in Mod Podge that had been drying for three hours and it worked fine. However, I live in a dry climate. If you live in a wetter climate, you may want to wait longer before varnishing the surface of your art.

I start by painting across the top, making smooth straight brush strokes and trying to thin out any areas where the varnish seems thick. Paint carefully over the paper wings so they don't rip or wear down. Because we'll be covering those with glass beads gel later, it isn't necessary to cover them completely as the gel will be enough to protect them later.

Cover the whole surface of the painting, making sure not to leave any pools of varnish anywhere. Make sure to coat the side edges of the canvas as well. Wait about 2-3 hours, then coat the front again. Let that dry for 3 hours.

For the raised elements, we're going to use E6000. Make sure you're working in a well ventilated area, because this stuff is really fumy. 

Metal wings

The wings don't lay flat at the moment, so I'm going to end up holding all edges down with my fingers spread out across the surface while the glue takes hold. I am using smaller tubes of E6000 to make it easier to apply to these small surfaces. 

I place drops of E6000 (by squeezing it out of the tube and scraping it off on the sides of the metal) in a lot of locations around the back of the wings. These drops will fill in any empty spaces under the wings, but will probably need cleanup afterwards as they spill out of the sides.

I do one wing at a time, scraping small amounts of glue (and tapping it down when it starts flowing a bit more) in strategic locations, including every curve, the swirls, and a few places along the straight edges. I turn it over, hold it just above the paper wing it goes over to make sure I have it in place, and press it down on top, adjusting its position as needed to make sure it covers all the paper edges. I hold it for about a minute. 

Then while still holding it with one hand, I grab a toothpick with the other to clean up areas where it pushed out of the sides. The good thing about E6000 is it's not Super Glue! It won't harden in less than a second and become impossible to clean up. It's more like a rubbery substance right now that's easier to remove. I'm not too concerned about the glue that's spilled out on top of the paper because that will get covered up by the glass beads later. 

Because the canvas is flexible, I reach under the back and press upward with my other hand in places where the metal won't lie flat. I check after a minute and one area is still not fully attached, so I hold it back down again while pressing up from underneath for another minute. 

I do the same for all the other metal wings. I eyeball them from the sides to make sure none are raised away from the canvas and they're all good. Then I let them dry while I add chains to the star charms.

Hanging the stars

On my illustrated design, I have 5 stars hanging by chains from the top. To measure how long I need my chains, I will pull some from the spool, hold the end where I think it should go, pull it straight up to the top, and use my side cutters to cut it about four links shorter than where it lands at the top. This is to allow me room to attach a jump ring and the star charm. 

After I cut all 5 chains, I will attach the star charms using jump rings. You can see in Diagram 2 above the proper way to open a jump ring. You want to use two sets of chain-nose pliers and open it like a spiral instead of pulling it wide. This allows it to keep its shape and strength.

The star charms have jump rings attached to them on the chain I bought them on, but most of those aren't round anymore, so I prefer to use my own. I use 6mm jump rings for them. I open a jump ring, hook it to a link on one end of a chain, hook the loop of a star charm on, then close the jump ring by reversing the spiral twist.

Once those are all attached, I squeeze a dollop of E6000 to the top of the canvas where I want the chains to hang and press them back in place. I hold each one in place for a few seconds before moving on to the next. They are still wet when I let go, but as long as I don't bump them they will stay glued in place. I'm not going to clean up around the chains because they will hold better if that whole lump of glue stays put. It will dry clear and because it's under the chain, it won't stick out and be ugly.

I don't want to glue the star charms themselves down because gravity will keep them in place once the art is hung on the wall. Plus I like the idea of keeping them unconstrained. 

Bead flowers

I can glue the bead flowers on while the chains are still drying as long as I don't bump them.

I have a large variety of purple beads that I've separated into large, medium, and small sizes. What I'm going to try to avoid is having the hole on the bead pointing straight up. Many are flatter, so this shouldn't be too hard. 

I'm using my bent chain-nose pliers to hold the beads while I squeeze a dollop of E6000 to one side. Some of my beads have bumps on them, so I need to test which areas might be the flattest to place them on the canvas with before I put glue on them. 

Because some of these are round, I place them down where I want them using my pliers and hold them for about a minute to be sure they stay in place. 

I place them randomly along the stems I glued on earlier, using my best judgment and mixing up the sizes when I place more than one on a stem.

I decide to place some of the much smaller ones at the bottom as if flower petals had fallen off. 

Some gems

Then, as I was looking at it all, I decided I needed to add some turquoise gems to the dragonfly. I have so many gems, and I really felt it would make the dragonfly as stunning as I felt it was when I first met it. So, I peel off the gems from the plastic sheet they're on and peel off the glue sticker on the back. Those glue stickers are not really that great as a long-term glue. I scrape off a dollop of E6000 on the backs of the gems and place those down up top near the wings.

Now I'm going to let everything dry overnight before I move to the next step. The E6000 needs to cure for 24 hours and we really need those metal wings to be completely settled before we can use them as our frames for the glass beads gel.

For this step we need the glass beads gel, a palette knife, a damp towel to wipe our fingers on, a toothpick to move beads around delicately, and some patience. This isn't a difficult task, but smoothing out the beads can seem a little tricky. We want them to be relatively flat so you can see the paper design somewhat underneath. We want them all to be crowded together to get that bubbly look (not many empty spaces), but we don't want lumps. 

Take one at a time

We'll do one wing at a time. First I move all the star chains out of my way so I have a place to rest my hand when I'm doing the delicate work with the toothpick.

First, take the back of the palette knife and scoop up a dollop of glass beads to scrape unceremoniously into the middle of a wire wing frame. I use the back of the palette knife because it's easier to scrape off excess on the inside of the wing if I need to.

Then, using the back of the palette knife, thin the pile by spreading it around inside the wing. We want the beads to be packed together without being piled on top of each other too much. If it's too thin and you see a lot of areas that don't have beads, add a little more bead gel to fill in those spaces.

I rotate the canvas around to make it easier to get into some of the corners with the tip of the palette knife. For some reason coming at it from a different angle, even though I'm just using the tip, makes it easier to fill in those areas.

Make sure you fill inside the swirls, too. You want to make sure all the paper underneath is covered.

Tips

• If you are having a hard time working with the palette knife to spread out the gel, use the tip of your finger to smooth it out. If you see some clumps of beads, use a toothpick to break those up and push beads down into a single layer on the surface.
• I use reading glasses to magnify the work.
• If you see a bunch of gel in one spot, it probably doesn't have glass beads in that area, so use the toothpick to slide some over. If you can't really tell, just poke at the area with the toothpick to see if it's just gel or if there's beads under it.
• Any peaks in the gel itself is fine because it will level out and dry flat. 
• If it seems like you added too much bead gel for this one wing, scoop some out with the tip of your palette knife and smooth the surface over again until all areas are covered in glass beads. 

When you're happy, use a very tiny tip of your damp towel (or even your finger) to wipe the top edge of the metal wing clean if you need to. The gel will dry very clear, so don't be hugely concerned if you don't get it all. The main goal is to make sure no glass beads are sitting on top of the metal.

Use slow drying time to your advantage

Do this for the other 3 wings. As they dry, the puffiness of the gel starts to die down and you'll be able to see areas you might want to fill with more beads or remove some that have clumped together. The good thing about this glass beads gel is it takes a while to dry, so you have plenty of time to work with it. I went back after an hour and found more empty spaces I could fill. I used my toothpick to scoop up a tiny bit of glass beads gel and pack it into those spaces.

When you've made all the fixes you want, allow them all to dry. This will take several hours or may even take overnight. But our next step is flipping the art over to hang wire on the back, and we ABSOLUTELY need the glass beads gel to be dry. You'll know it's dry when the gel goes completely clear (like the first picture above).

Because of the raised elements on this art, you might want to put it in a shadowbox or buy a special frame that accommodates deep-sided canvases. I am going to hang mine on my wall as is, however. I can keep it out of reach from the cat and no longer have children's tiny hands grabbing at things so I feel it will be safe.

To keep the beads safe from scratches while I'm putting the hangers and wire on the back, I will put the art face down on a folded towel. 

Put the hangers on

To mark where my hangers will go, I measure 4" down from the top on the back of the canvas on each side of the frame. I mark a dot centered horizontally on the wood on each side. Whatever size frame you're working with, you'll want to attach the hangers 1/3 of the way down from the top.

You can use a drill to start the holes for the screws, but the wood is usually not too hard. I will start the holes by twisting the screws a little into the dots I made, then lay one of my hangers with the hole over that dot. The back of the hanger is completely flat. Make sure that's what's against the wood, otherwise the triangle loop won't be free to move.

I use a screwdriver and twist the screws in while keeping the hangers facing inward (toward each other). You want the triangles of the hangers facing each other to keep any slack in the wire from reaching up to the top of the wood frame which will interfere with hanging the art.

Once both hangers are on (tighten as much as you can by hand), we'll string the wire between them. 

Attach the wire

I cut 12" of 24 gauge wire. I straighten that as much as I can by pulling a soft cloth down it repeatedly. If you are working with a different sized frame, you'll just want to add a couple inches to each side of the wire where the hangers will attach. In this case the hangers are a little more than 7" apart, so I added 5" extra just to make sure I have plenty of wire to wrap, tie, and coil. Any excess can be cut off, but if I end up too short, I have to redo everything, and I don't want to do that. 

You can see in Diagram 3 above how we tie the wire on to keep it secure. You'll want to pull one end through a triangle hook, leaving the long end facing the center of the canvas. Pull about 2" through, pull it back toward the center, and loop it three times around the triangle hook.

It helps to use bent chain-nose pliers to pull the wire through the hook and tighten it. They have teeth to grip the wire and the bent end helps feed the wire through small areas.

Then pull the short end behind the long end and tuck it back through as if you're tying a knot with it. Pull it as tight as you can, then start coiling it around the long wire until it runs out. 

Then pull the long end over to the other triangle hook and repeat that process, making sure to keep the wire pulled as tight across the back as you can. I ended up with a lot of excess wire, so after coiling it around several times (about the same as the other side), I cut the rest off.

If you are working with larger art, you can use thicker wire for hanging. The 24 gauge is surprising strong, but the bigger the art, the more strain you place on the wire. 

You are now ready to hang your art!

*I create cut files (DXF, SVG, and more) for crafters and makers. See my Creative Fabrica shop or my Design Bundles shop for a variety of Steampunk and layered wall art designs.