I'm Dreaming... of a Giant White Butterfly

I'd dreamt of doing a large-scale art project for quite some time, and this year I finally completed my giant butterfly ornament.

The inspiration was my vintage butterfly Christmas ornament, currently hanging in my kitchen.

I started with two round cotton canvases I purchased from an art supply store.
They measure about 19 3/4" in diameter.

Getting the acrylic paint color right was my first challenge. Matching vintage colors is especially difficult (have you ever looked at the colors in a vintage tie?). I mostly used Azure Blue, but when you look at the ornament in certain light, it has a green tinge. So I mixed in Light Turquoise.

After painting both canvases, I applied acrylic gloss medium to add shine.

Next, I drew the butterfly on paper to create a template for both sides of the ornament.

Template Stage 1

Template Stage 2

I used painter's tape to hold down the template, then traced it in pencil on both painted canvases.

Then, I painted the butterflies in Titanium White.

Painting Stage

Mistake/imperfection alert: Instead of painting, I originally applied Elmer's Glue then white glitter, but the glitter dried more clear than white, so I painted over the glitter on one side, reapplied Elmer's Glue, then glitter one more time. Yikes! Arts and crafts can be really hard work!

Glitter Stage

After the glitter dried on both sides, I had to figure out how to seamlessly fuse them together. I already had Weld Wood in the house, so I used that. It's rather toxic (make sure you open a window) but it does work as a permanent adhesive.

Before fusing the sides together, I also had to decide how to hang the ornament. I broke off part of a wire coat hanger for the cap hook. I bent it with plyers and inserted it inside a jagged-type picture hanger, then hammered this to the inside edge of one of the canvases.

I thought of painting a silver/grey crown onto the blue canvas, but didn't want to ruin the integrity of the circle. Instead, I made a small paper crown and used that (it's tough to see in the photo, but it's there).

Lastly, I bought a white tension curtain rod, climbed a ladder, and placed it in the middle of my kitchen skylight. I bent an ordinary wire coat hanger to form the ornament hook and, voilá!

My butterfly ornament was free to fly!

Final Installation

Seeing Stars... and a Giant Butterfly (please excuse the kitchen clutter).