A miniaturist from the UK asked for a fly swatter tutorial and this is my try.
I have modeled the miniature fly swatters after my own. I measured and converted it to 1 inch scale.
The "swatter" part is made from fine tulle. I happen to have black on hand, I made a screen door and used the tulle for that.
For the handle I used green paddle wire, 26 gauge.
Cut the wire 3 1/4" (82mm) long.
Fold the wire in half over a piece of mat board that is 3/8" (1 cm) wide.
Hold onto the mat board and place the pliers about 1/4" (6mm) from the edge of the mat board and twist 3 to 4 times.
Don't make a tight twist.
Now, place the pliers about 1 1/4" (32mm) from the folded end of the wire.
Do you see in the picture the right edge of my pliers? That's what is 1 1/4" (32mm) from the folded end of the wire.
With another set of pliers make another twist, not tight.
Leave a bit untwisted.
I've found if you twist in the opposite direction of the first twist, it looks better.
Bend the ends out to a "Y".
The handle is done.
The "swatter" part is made from paper and the fine tulle. A picture of that is above.
The "swatter frame" is made from paper. The easiest way I've found to do this is to fold a strip of paper in half, that's the middle picture. Fold the paper again, that's the picture on the right.
The dimensions of the "swatter frame" are 3/8" (1 cm) x 1/2" (1.5 cm).
Sharpen your pencil and mark the dimensions on your folded piece of paper.
First mark the 1/2" (1.5 cm) length along the folded edge.
Second, mark the width. The width is divided in half because we have folded the paper in half, so half of 3/8" (1 cm) is 3/16" (5mm).
Measure 1/8" (3mm) from an end, make a mark.
Draw a diagonal line to the fold.
Draw a line on the inside of the "swatter frame", about a 1/16" (1 to 2 mm) from the original line.
This doesn't have to be exact, we just want a narrow border.
Make a straight line at the triangle part at the end. That's where we glue the handle in.
Cut out this middle.
Cut the "swatter frames" out from the rest of the paper.
Apply tacky glue to one of the "swatter frames" and press the tulle onto it.
I know I don't show it in the following pictures, but now is the time to trim the fine tulle away from the frame.
After you have trimmed the tulle away from the frame,
apply tacky glue to the tulle and press your handle into the triangle area of the frame.
Apply a little more tacky glue to the handle and place the remaining frame on top and press it all together with your fingers. Let dry.
When the glue is dry you can paint the fly swatter any color you want. I've trimmed the corners, I think this looks better.
If you use the black tulle you can make the swatter look old fashioned by leaving the black tulle and green wire handle and just paint the frame. That's the way I remember my grandmother's fly swatter.
Remember, this is Part 2 of the July Tutorial, so if you haven't seen the basket tutorial, yet, scroll down.
Have fun, expand on it, make it better . . . . . . . . . Just keep making minis!!!
