Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Spiral rattan and skeleton leaf bee
- 12 June 2013
- click to send Christine a smile

Soak the rattan in warm water
For the bee-body
See the Tutorial below for a more detailed look and curling spiral cages with wire instead of rattan.

Fold the one end at a sharp angle

Roll half of the length of rattan

Secure the curl with a butterfly hair-clip
See Tutorial below for more details on how to use the butterfly hair clips

Start to roll the other end of the rattan

Continue to roll the rattan until the one end slips over the other.

Secure the rattan spirals with butterfly hair clips. Set aside to dry completely. This will set the spiral curls in the rattan.
For the head

Knot a length of rattan

Thread one dangling leg of the rattan knot back through the knot to create feelers

Curl the feelers and set aside to dry

Cut the feelers short
For the wings

Make and bleach a few skeleton leaves (see Tutorial below)
Assembling the bee

Loosen the clips...

Cut the dangling rattan ends short and gently pull the curl to spiral out

Pull out the other side into a spiral bee body

Glue the head and feelers on to the spiral bee body

Snip and glue on a few rattan legs

Glue in the skeleton leaf wings

Special Design Note: Whenever you add a tiny animal or critter in a design make sure to have a good look at its "body language". It should look absolutely thrilled to be in the design and never desperate to escape.
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