Bee HAPPY!

When my son first started Kindergarten (over 20 years ago!), rules were taught with a picture of a bee and the phrases "Be courteous", "Be kind", "Be a good listener", etc.

There were a lot of rules being dictated and in all that he had to learn, there was one thing I wanted him to remember. I made him a little shirt with that same bee that was so fond of teaching rules and under it, wrote

"BEE HAPPY!"



That's what this little bee made from yellow and black Divine Twine symbolizes to me: remembering to be happy!



I started this project with a 1 /18" x 7/8" spun cotton egg. A Styrofoam egg would work too, but the spun cotton egg was on hand! Poke a wood skewer into the wide end of the egg for easy handling.



Add a drop of tacky glue to the egg near the hole. With two lengths of twine about 2 feet long, attach the ends side by side and let dry for a minute. Then spread glue on the rest of the egg and begin twirling the skewer while laying down the side by side twines.



Keep the twines close together to the previous layer as you slowly twist the skewer.







Wrap the twine all the way to the pointy end and snip it off.



Now you have the bee's little body. I feel happier already! Remove from the skewer and while you're waiting patiently for it to dry (hardest part for me!), start on the antennae.



I used a 4" length of 26 gauge black wire. First I wrapped it around the skewer,



then removed it, cut it in half and used tacky glue to adhere a black seed bead. While those are drying,



let's start on the happy little head!



Two dots of tacky glue on a black .5 inch (1.27cm) pom pom will securely hold the 5mm google eyes. Moving on to the wings:



wrap a short length of 24 gauge wire around a dowel the thickness you'd like the wings to be. I used the fattest paintbrush handle I have, which was about the thickness of my baby finger. Twist the ends of the wire together tightly, and remove from the dowel. Clip the twisted part of the wire to about 1/8" long. Then using a fine mesh tulle, cut a small rectangle--enough to fold over and cover both sides of the wire circle you created. Twist the tulle at the base and tie with matching color thread. Clip off as much of the excess tulle from base of the wing as possible, being careful not to clip the thread! A dot of glue at the "stem" of the wing and a good twisting of the tulle which remains will help hold it all together.



Just as every rose has it's thorns, your bee will need a stinger! Paint or use a permanent black marker to color the pointy end of your good ol' trusty skewer, and when it's dry, clip it off about 1/4".



To assemble the parts, I used my glue gun. In the hole where my skewer was, I put a drop of hot glue, and then put the ends of the antennae in the hole. After the antennae were secure, I added a dot of hot glue and attached the head. Then with an Exacto knife, I poked between the twines and into the body where I wanted to place the wings. A dot of hot glue on the end of the twisted stem of the wings hold them securely. Lastly, I used a tiny dot of tacky glue to place the stinger at the pointy end of the bee body!




BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................................