Believe it or not, Dragonfly Hairpins has been a craft in our family for over a decade. I remember obsessing over them and making a ton of them. They are simple enough I would recommend this craft for ages 8+.
Things you need:- Crafting Wire
- Seed Beads
- Bobby Pins
- Pliers
The crafting wire can be found in the jewelry section of most department stores and it must be small enough to fit through a seed bead.
First wrap the wire tightly around the bobby pin, at least a couple times, to secure the wire to the top. The best way to avoid sharp little parts poking you while creating and wearing the hairpin, use a set of needle nose pliers to pinch closely to the double coil you've created at the top. If you don't have a pair of needle nose pliers, borrow some pliers from your handy man.
Here comes the fun part, start stringing beads.. Depending on how big you want your dragonfly the more you use, the larger it will be. Be careful about going too large though, because every time you go to wear the hair pin, you may have to reshape the wings. I typically use anywhere from 15-20 beads for each wing.
After you have your beads on the wire, you're ready to make your first dragonfly wing. All you have to do is loop the wire around the top part of the bobby pin, making sure that you keep all the beads on one side and don't let them slide through the middle. Secure your wire by wrapping around the top portion again, then you're ready to begin your second dragonfly wing.
Repeat the steps above, stringing the same number of beads onto the wire. When you're ready thread through to the top of bobby pin and loop around again to secure it.
When creating your bottom set of wings, you want to make them slightly smaller so use approximately 5 beads less. For example, if you used 20 beads for your top set of wings, you should only use 15 for your bottom set.Don't stress if it doesn't look perfect, afterwards you can always reshape it.
You're almost finished! Now string one bead and wrap the wire around the top part of the bobby pin, string another bead and wrap around again. Don't forget to pull the wire tight, but be careful not to break it!
Once you've reached the bottom, without beads, wrap the wire tightly around the top part of the bobby pin. Don't forget to use pliers to pinch the wire closely to the bobby pin.
After making a couple of these you can begin experimenting with different designs (flowers, butterflies, etc.). They are perfect for hot dates or random days and best of all you can make them to color coordinate with your wardrobe! I hope you enjoyed my first tutorial!
