Woven Paper Dove Broach

by lancmaltby

13K477

Intro: Woven Paper Dove Broach

Here is a great little broach that you can make and wear with almost anything. I wear mine with my vintage black dress for a dinner party or a night out on the town with friends. This little dove can be also be used to decorate - gift packages instead of a bow, place one on your fancy hat with a feather, hang with string from the ceiling in front of a window or make a few and add to your favorite house plant.
Also- check out my blog for other great crafts http://tissupapers.blogspot.com/
Thanks and happy instructables

STEP 1: Cut 2 Stips

Use a white 8.5x11 piece of paper - you can really use just about any paper or color. But for my dove I use white. Cut 2 strips that measure 1.5 x 11

STEP 2: Cut 3 Cuts in Each Strip

Next cut a line down the middle making 2 pieces and stop about 1 inch from the edge - follow with 2 more cuts down the middle of the 2 pieces you have made for a total of 4 strips. *remember leave about an inch from the edge of the paper.

STEP 3: Starting to Weave the Paper to Make the Wings.

On each of the pieces of paper - start to weave the strips as shown in photo. You are now making the wings.

STEP 4: Making the Wings

Place the 2 woven pieces of paper one on top of the other. Make sure you have all 4 strips each pointing in north, south east and west. Here we are going to weave each strip together to form the wings and body. * over 1 under 1 etc.

STEP 5: Making the Body

Next pull down the top 2 strips to the south position - tape to table ( easier to work with if taped to table - don't use to much tape - this is just to hold down while we weave ). Then pull the south 2 strips to the north positions. Now you have formed 4 loops to start the weaving process. With the east 2 strips weave them through the 4 loops * over 1 under 1*, then follow with the west 2 strips. Once finished you should have the body formed. Your bird is on it's back - we will flip it over in the next step.

STEP 6: Forming the Head and Tail

OK here is the tricky part. We are now going to weave the strips around to form the head and tail. Continue to use the over 1 under 1 method and weave the strips around each other. See photos.

On the second photo i have turned the dove now right side up so you can see how to weave the pieces. Once finished your should have 4 strips at the front to form the head and 4 strips in the back to form the tail

STEP 7: Head

For the head - Fold over all pieces of the paper and almost form a little knot - Cut with scissors to make the shape of the beak

STEP 8: Tail

For the tail - cut the 4 strips into smaller strips and with your scissors curl the ends to make them fancy.

STEP 9: To Finish the Dove Broach

To finish - Glue a pin to the body and you are ready to go. Have fun making my dove paper broach!

Have fun!

7 Comments

chicks_with_sticks 13 years ago

Make sure you do this step exactly as pictured. My dove ended up with wings going two different directions.

suziwollman 15 years ago

I'm so lost! I have strips that are just bent and lying underneath the others, not really woven in. I hope someone sees this and can help me out! I love the way the dove looks, and if I can figure it out, I'd like to decorate my Christmas tree with the doves and the woven paper stars (also an instructable).

chicks_with_sticks 13 years ago

PLEASE! Clarify this step. My strips are all twisted.

GorillazMiko 16 years ago

Wow!
Looks very complicated, but looks awesome in the end.

Definitely I wish I could do this, probably would mess up though.
But excellently done Instructable, would LOVE to see more.

+1 rating.

lancmaltby 16 years ago

Thanks! I promise it is not hard at all to make it - steps 6 & 8 could be a little tricky but I included lots of pictures. Hope you make one!!

Emmaleigh 16 years ago

Wow. This is a great Instructable. I made mine in less than 10 minutes and it looks wonderful. There were a couple of points (step 6 & 8) where I wasn't certain what the instructions meant for me to do, but I just continued to turn my bird in my hands until I figured out exactly what you meant. Very neat! Thanks!