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(( Projects )) How to make a little butterfly

[u]Butterfly tutorial[/u]

You need:
* 2 strings of 35 cm (for the body)
* 4 strings of 45 cm (for the base from the wings)
* 16 strings of 45 cm (for the wings itself)
* a pair of scissors
* glue
* tape (if you like to tape your work to the table so it doesn't shift)

Depending on the size of the wings you can add or leave out strings. I use three strings and the base for each wing. If you want bigger wings use more strings for each wing, if you want smaller wings just use less strings for each wing.

We start with the body of the butterfly. Fold one of your body strings in half and lay the other string horizontal underneath the folded body string. Than start making square knots. (I use seven knots for the head.)


For everyone who doesn't know what a square knot is:


Hold the knots with one of your hands and with the other hand pull the middle strings. With this you make your loop smaller.

Then you put the middle strings through the loop and again pull the middle strings. This will create the head of the butterfly.


The next thing we will do is making the body. Again we use the same square knot as we used with the head. Make two of those knots. Now we are going to add four strings, these will be the base for the wings. First you lay down the strings like you do when you are making a square knot (don't pull the strings tight yet!) Now you take your for wing base strings and lay them horizontal through the loops from the knot. It must look like this:


Now make the knot, it will look like this:


Until we start making the wings just be careful that you don't pull the base strings, these won't stay into place yet. Make five more knots and your done with the body. We won't use the strings for the body anymore so feel free to cut it off and put some glue or transparent nail polish onto it to secure the knots.


To make the wings I use the same technique as the technique used to make a mandalas flower. Take two base strings and tie another string around those two base strings. Like I said at the start, I use three strings and the base for one wing.

*So I tie three string around the base strings.

Take the first string you tied onto the base strings and put it over the other two. Than make a forward knot on the left base string. Take the first string tied onto the base strings on the other side and make a backward knot on the right base string.

Now make a forward knot using the strings you used making the past two knots. Take the second string tied onto the base strings and do the same thing only start knotting onto the base strings. So each row of knots you make two more knots as the row before. Than make the knots with the third string tied on to the base strings. Your base strings stay on the most left and most right knot of each row.*
Do this three more times, from * till the next *.


1 Forward knot


2 Backward knot

It will look like this:

Now take the two base strings between a pair of wings and make a forward knot. This will hold a pair of wings together.

With the left base string make three backward knots and with the right base string make three forward knots.

Take the most left string from the pair of wings and make four forward knots. Take the most right string from the pair of wings and make four backward knots. Do the same thing on the other pair of wings.

The last thing you need to do is cut of all the strings en put glue on the ends and back of the wings to secure the knots.


If there are some things not clear or if you have advice/tips comment below or pm me and I will respond as quick as possible. Hope that you all enjoyed the tutorial.

For those who have been asking for a video, Abdeslem was so kind to make one.
You can find it at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfn0GFchszo

Editors

The original author of this tutorial is diansa2012 but it was also edited by .

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