diy clay butterfly wall decor

i love etsy and get so much inspiration from there. it's also easy to get distracted with all their unique items, next thing i knew, 2 hour later and i wasn't even looking for what i originally went on there for. i don't mind though because i always find something interesting. i was looking up wall decor and came across these butterflies. side note; take a look at this persons shop they have a ton of beautiful ceramic items.

this is not what i had in mind at all for the wall but i really liked it. i couldn't bring myself to pay $28 for one butterfly and of course i wanted more than one. so i thought about the clay i used to make the minature figurines of taz and abby and wondered if i could use that. it worked! i'm sure it's not of the quality of the ones on etsy but it conveyed the same idea. i used bake shop, sculpey clay ($1.29, 2oz package). each package makes 2.5 butterflies. butterfly cookie cutter form world market ($1). and i used white hemp cord ($1.29) wrapped around the middle a couple of times to hang it.

 

the clay is really easy to work with. i cut out the shape using the cookie cutter. made four holes using a needle wiggling it around to make the hole bigger. i tried to put detail into them using lace so they looked like the ones on etsy but decided i like them better plain. then i placed each of them on a glass baking sheet. to get the variation in wings being opened i laid them down like a tent each at a different height. be aware that at whatever height you set it, it will fall a little due to the heat in the oven. placed in the oven for 15 minutes. they cool really fast.

on some of them i had to make the holes a bit bigger and took my exacto knife tip and twirled it around gently to scrape the hole a bit bigger. and because i'm a stickler for details i took a small piece of sand paper and smoothed the edges out. these are so easy to make and can be painted as well. for where these are going and because i like the natural feel it has as it is, i'm going to keep it in it's natural state.

for the final part I wrapped the hemp around the front in an x shape like the ones on etsy and wrapped it around to the back into a knot. i painted thumbtacks white so if you are able to see them they blend in with the butterfly. i pushed the needle through the knot and stuck them on the wall. i already have in mind how they will be on the wall so the final photo will be posted shortly.

here is my little helper, making sure work gets done.

and of course there is taz, umm gaurding the door, kind of :)

... and here is how they turned out.