I have been so excited to share this spider, which didn't start out as a Golden Snitch at all. I had a brass bell, probably from some Christmas decoration, in my beading stash, and I thought about using it for a spider. It was the right size, but I didn't want to make a bell spider. That would be boring. I used may beading tools to pry and curl the bottom pieces of the bell up and away to remove the piece inside. What I now had looked like a very enormous bead or acorn cap. So I did what I usually do when I'm holding something unusual in my hand--I stare at it. And I think about it. And I turn it over in my hand trying to imagine it as something else. I decided to make it an all-gold spider until I could maybe find a cool bead or stone to glue to the base.
I started working on the head, for which I decided to use a couple of Industrial Chic metal fibers because they had balled tips that were perfect as spider eyes. The metal fibers were long like spider legs but thicker than the wire I usually use for spider legs. So once I had looped the fibers through the top of the bell and angled them up, figuring I would just use them for the spider's front legs, I realized I wouldn't be able to fit any beads on the wires. I ignored those wires while I attached the 8 spider legs and beaded them, which is about when I realized that I could use the metal fibers as a base on which to add wings. And then, as you might guess, the word Golden Snitch just popped in my head. The fibers were just the right length, the spider was golden, and all the creature needed was something to make it more than just a spider.
Finding the wings, honestly, was the hardest part because I spent so much time looking for gold metal mesh, something that was maybe used as a filter or as part of another product that I could remove and cut up. I won't bore you with the details of my quest except to say that after a couple of hardware stores and a phone call to my brother, who is a plumber, I ended up at Michaels, which I had been avoiding because I'd already looking for metal mesh for another project and couldn't find it. Ribbon, as it turned out, was the closest thing to finely woven gold mesh that I could find anywhere. I knew it would fray when I tried to cut a wing shape, and I didn't even know if I could get the wing attached to the wire, but at $3.99 for a roll of wired ribbon, it was worth a shot. I guess the crafting gods were looking down upon me. A soon as I cut out the wings, I dabbed at the cut edges with gold metallic paint and let the wings dry. After that, I cut off any extra fibers sticking out and bent each wired end inward so that it could fold under the metal fiber for a finished look. Then I applied a thin strip of E-6000 glue to the metal fiber and gently pressed each wing into place. If I just had some kind of miniature motor, my golden snitch spider really would look like a golden snitch. Instead, you have to imagine it in flight.
After 61+ spiders I will say that I am not as much impressed by the variety of spiders that I already have or am planning to make but the process by which my mind arrives at ideas. This creativity project, for me, has been about discovering my process. I know that I can make a spider, but how do I arrive at a particular finished spider? I have been wanting to read The Creativity Question by Albert Rothenberg and Carl R. Hausman, in which the authors discuss the definition, origin, and nature of creativity. Understanding why we create--what makes our brain operate in such a way that a creative product is the result of an idea--is even more interesting than what we create.
Materials: brass bell, metallic gold grooved bead, metal fibers, ribbon, paint, gold bugle beads, gold seed beads, gold E beads, gold wire
