Nidea, the Swallowtail

Character:
Lady Nidea is lady in waiting to the Queen. She is a young cousin of the queen, and her insect is the Swallowtail Butterfly.



Construction:
Nidea started out as a Swan Lake Barbie I picked up years back at a yard sale. She actually served as dress dummy for some of the other fairies whose base dolls were more fragile (or had drying paint).

Her dress is a handsewn muslin shift covered in silk daffodil petals. The wings are attached to a hinge, which is attached to the dress, which gives the wings a range of poses.

Attaching the plastic side of the wings to the plastic hinge was the most difficult part of the whole project. Nothing seemed to stick. In the end, it's a fragile combination of layers of epoxy putty, tacky glue, and super glue, but what's really holding it together is the black feathers glued over both surfaces on the back.




Similar to previous butterflies, the wings themselves are cut out of acetate, and then bits of colored feathers were individually glued on in rows, filling in the wing pattern. The pattern is also colored in on the back with Sharpie. This gives them a semi translucent, stained-glass look in the right light. Unfortunately, it's very hard to capture that on film, although I did try.


Her shoes are a pair of white Barbie sandals painted yellow, with a few small blue petals glued on as accent.


Finally, her eyes were repainted a deep blue, and she was given a choker and headband out of the blue petals.


I'm glad that I got around to another butterfly, although I really love the more exotic looking insect fairies. The yellow brightness of Nidea makes her a lovely counterpoint to the looks of some of the other dolls. Completed June 2009