Bellaluna is born

If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it, anything you want to, do it....
These are the words in my head and heart this morning. You may recognize these words from the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".
 I, quite by accident, watched it and the new version, a total of three times in the weeks I spent while creating Bellaluna, and the words seem to have come to fruition with my little bat. I thought her up as a wild idea to celebrate my tatting name, and she has come to life just as the song goes..anything you want to... do it.
I finished her last night, while watching that movie about a candy maker. So, she has a sweeter feel to her in my mind.
I am so pleased with the way she turned out. I have no idea how many beads I used in her wings, I will try to get an estimate later. (edited.. she has well over 1300 beads!) She is a little over 18" in wingspan, and 10" head to toe. I haven't selected the branch I will hang her from yet, as her display... I have to find just the right one.
  I hope she does well in the fair, but even if she doesn't, I'll love her all the same.

Bellaluna's progress

Hello there!

My little Bellaluna has turned into quite a project! But, I am really loving how she is turning out. I am very bad at taking progress photos.. I guess I just don't want to stop to take them, but, here are a couple I took this morning.

Here is Bellaluna with her legs and hands attached. I see that I am probably going to have to fix the length of one of her fingers, but when I made it, it seemed to be the correct length.. measure measure....

                     

Here is a photo of the wing detail. I have estimated it will take another 2 weeks to finish the wings. I rolled around many ideas in my head, like.. using a bunch of little motifs, using one big motif and a few little ones, tatting the whole wing section then attaching it...

Finally, I landed on this idea of making the beaded 'fabric' in a sort of mignonnette style. I was half way thru the first wing, when I realized I would not have enough beads, and had to go on a bead search. By the way, my Michael's has almost totally gotten rid of the regular beads like this.. they are just full of the expensive 'fancy' jewelry ones. So, dear friends, I am recommending you check out Jo Ann's fabric for beads. That is where I found these, regular seed beads (well, they are a beautiful iridescent Japanese beetle type with colors of blue, purple, gold, green)..plus they have the fancy jewelry ones, too. Also, Hobby Lobby had a nice selection. Well there is my plug for the day.

Anyway...cross your fingers I get her done in time for the fair!