Braided animals

You get instructions and bigger pictures if you click on the animals.
	The maggot. Simple and with a lot of possibilities.
	A snake. Not to difficult.
	The dragonfly. The first flying animal in this list.
	The lizard. With legs.
	A dinosaur. A beast in a lot of different shapes. (The first dino.)
	A butterfly. A gentle animal, but not easy.
All of these animals are based on the four strand, round braid in the twist and splice back method. The simple animals can be made with other braids but before you start with animals with legs, you should learn the splice back method.
A little help? The animals in the pictures have all been made with just string, braiding tight and using stiff cord helps a lot in this. If you feel the need to stiffen your work, do so. You can use a wire in the centre of each braid but that might show. I think it is better to stiffen with glue. Test a leftover bit of your string with the glue to check for unwanted effects, such as running colours, melting fibres or becoming brittle. Most people who stiffen their work use the glue meant to be used on wood, the white, milky stuff that will dry to a clear, plastic like, film. It is pretty water resistant to. An other possibility is the white paper glue that will be colourless when it is dry. For both of these goes that you use one part of glue on several parts of water (1 on 2 till 1on 10, I have been told, depending on the kind of glue, string and the stiffness of the result,) you will have to experiment with how much of each, and put your work in the solution. When you take it out, squeeze as much water out as possible, shape and let dry. If you can without touching but you may want to shape it again several times. Be careful with handling the beast when wet, it will pick up dirt real fast. Stiffening with other kinds of glue is also possible but they may leave a glittering surface and many man made fibres will react on those glues. So test and test again before you use them.
©Willeke 2002