Making giant fairy wings

Okay friends, it’s wing time! I’ve had a few questions about how I made my fairy wings, and figure it’s good to have a proper record of it here. It was very important to me that they be somewhat proportional, which meant large. This meant adapting techniques I'd seen used on a smaller scale to work for something a bit heftier. I used a combination of different gauges of wire (coat hanger, 0.8mm, 1.2mm), iridescent cellophane (this was a pain to find in Australia in large enough rolls, I ended up having to get some from America), spray adhesive, and duct tape. I’d recommend some soft scrap fabric as well, for the end.

I sketched out a rough design in Inkscape, and then immediately discarded it and went with vibes once I started. The top piece of each wing segment was coat hanger wire for strength, and then I just cut smaller pieces that looked nice. 2 things I focused on: they all had a long “tail” that would get bound together for the frame, and where they connected would be a good taper and easy to join with tape. 

Next up was attaching the wires together. So much duct tape. I used this purely because it was a good colour match to my wire as it will be visible through the cellophane at the end, and is strong. I used lots of overlap, usually on a diagonal for support, and combined all the wires together. At the connection points I tried to keep a clean edge, so it joined smoothly.

Rinse and repeat until you have wings! I use the first one I make as a template for the second, and they just need to be sisters not twins. Originally I planned just to do a top and bottom, but thought they needed the middle one for extra oomph. Good idea to double check the length of your cellophane while doing this, it needs to be doubled and I very luckily had just enough, but it was close.

Adding the cello was definitely the hardest part, would recommend using something cleaner than the garage floor but you make do. I sectioned it into 4 (2 top and 2 bottom pieces) just to make doing the top layer easier. I also taped it to the floor to keep tension. 

Side note: I did try adding some spray paint to the smaller wings for extra colour, but I really didn’t like it, would not recommend.

Using a spray adhesive, I coated all the cellophane and then laid the wing frames on top when it was tacky, keeping them as flat as possible and gently pressing on each wire to ensure they were stuck. Two people were needed for the top layer, we added the adhesive, then pulled as tight as we could while lowering the top layer onto the sheet on the floor. Starting from the spine, we pressed towards the edges of the wings to try to remove any air bubbles. Finally cut them slightly larger than the frame and we had a base! They will probably still look a bit funky at this point, don’t worry it’ll get fixed. 

Second most terrifying part. Ironing. Fun fact, cellophane will shrink when heat is applied. Pressing cloth is a must, on a low setting I went over each wing, gently heating it to get it to tighten up around the wires. Definitely go low and slow, too much and it will wrinkle, it’s a bit of a learning curve. 

Final detailing involved good ventilation and a mask, and a candle. Same principle, more focused. I liked to use a candle for this as it meant I was moving the wing, not the flame, which gave more control. I sealed the edge along the outer wires, and due to some overzealous sealing decided that these would be more raggedy around the edges and added a bunch of holes. Totally intentional, no mistakes here. Where the holes are added the cello will wrinkle a bit, so just use discretion. 

Lastly was binding them all together. I chose to have the smaller bottom ones closer to me, and the top ones angled slightly away. I just got them in place and secured with a whole lot of duct tape, and created a U shaped block of wire to bind them both to. I tried to keep this as slim as possible, to reduce weight and help with getting it on. This slots into the back of a corset, and holds quite well. I’d recommend covering the duct tape in some kind of fabric or padding, it digs in and hurts by the end of the day. 

Honestly I really would recommend giving this a shot, you can also do it with cardstock for the veins and make them considerably smaller, mine are light for their size but still not the most comfortable thing. Funnily enough, kids think they’re cool, but only really believe I’m a fairy when seeing my pointy ears!