Following my wasp and spider carvings my mind turned to the practicality of
carving other insects and, in particular, a dragonfly. Clearly the wings and legs
would be difficult but when I found a source of plywood just 0.4mm thick I
decided to give it a go.

The walnut body was relatively straightforward to carve and once finished I
turned my attention to the wings. No carving here. I cut them out with
scissors! I wanted to give the wings an aerofoil shape, so I boiled them in water
for a few minutes and taped them to the outside of a milk bottle to get the
required curve. The veins were then simply drawn on with an ultrafine marker
pen. Finally brass wire was fixed to the underside with epoxy allowing the
wings to be attached to the body.

The legs were a more difficult problem. After a couple of false starts I settled
on a core of copper wire covered with brass tubes of different diameters and
soldered together. The brass gave rigidity and the copper allowed them to
bend at the knees. Shape was given to the legs by hammering, filing and
polishing before final fitting to the base, a piece of wood sold as decoration for
aquariums.

Although there was a minimal amount of carving in this project I am pleased
with the result and particularly with the problem solving aspects.