Playing at My Vise - Tying a Dragonfly by Graham Owen
Do you ever sit at your vise and think about tying something unusual but don’t quite know where to start, and if you do, which direction to proceed? Perhaps something challenging or out of the ordinary, or for display, be it whimsical, realistic, artistic or maybe even a combination of these options. If it turns out well, the fly would look nice parked above your tying desk, and if not, lessons will be learned, hopefully including new methods that improve the look, durability and fish-ability of your bread and butter fishing flies. My continuing goal is to seek the fastest and easiest techniques to tie flies that best suit their intended purposes, whether for fishing or display.
Today I have challenged myself to do just that, by creating a semi-realistic-artistic dragonfly, as well as taking photos of each tying step in an effort to share my fun with others. Yes, it is fun, especially if time and effort are minimized. First of all, I’m not a pro; I will be using a relatively old low-resolution digital camera and will be tying freestyle without instructions and measurements. Mistakes will be made and lessons will be learned.
The dragonfly pictured above took a few hours to tie and includes some beautiful feathers, a body made of foam, pre-printed wings and dust-broom bristles for legs. I hope you enjoy watching this fly develop, and at the very least see some interesting techniques, such as quick and easy ways to work with foam and feathers.
Okay- lets get started by shaping some insect body parts, more specifically a dragonfly abdomen and thorax. I have found the easiest foam to work with is available at my local hardware store, in the flooring aisle, sold as interlocking floor covering - and it floats like cork.
I cut workable size pieces of foam using scissors of different sizes; large ones to cut directly from the floor mat and smaller ones for final trimming. Since this dragonfly is being tied freestyle the measurements used may not result in perfect proportions, but documenting the process with a ruler hopefully allows for better results on the next attempt.
After cutting and roughly shaping a tapered abdomen, the piece of foam needs to have the corners trimmed off with scissors to round the edges. This doesn’t need to be perfectly round because tying the segmentation later will make it much rounder.
Next step is to cut a slit along the abdomen to just beyond half way through the diameter. On this fly the cut side will be on the top of the abdomen.
A bodkin needle heated over a flame and inserted into the slit will melt a narrow hollow core inside the foam, allowing for much easier tying onto either a hook or piece of wire.
I could have used green foam but instead decided to color over yellow foam with a green permanent marker. I think it looks better when the body color is not completely uniform, and the imperfect hand coloring actually looks more realistic.
To permanently seal the marker onto the foam, paint over it with flexible acrylic varnish. By adding just a touch of coloring to the varnish it will dry transparent but also impart a little extra luster, which I personally like the look of. Colors with a slight hint of pearlescent metallic are my favorites.
The abdomen has been painted with varnish and will take about 30 minutes to dry. Drying time can be rapidly accelerated by locating a warm light bulb in close proximity.
Let’s find some nice colorful feathers, to be tied over the top of the abdomen. I have some unusual feathers obtained from a veterinarian’s office that specializes in treating birds, and the best part is, they’re free.
A nice slender green and blue parrot feather, topped with orange-dyed grizzly will do nicely.
I dip my forefinger into a jar of flexible tying cement, touch my thumb to transfer some of the liquid, and then run a feather between them, coating both sides. While applying cement stroke in one direction only - towards the feather's tip, while evenly distributing the cement.
While the cement on the feathers is drying other materials need to be prepared for creating the dragonflies head. Thin precut white foam strips should work nicely.
All of the major body parts have been prepared for tying, including another small piece of floor foam for making the thorax. While these parts finish drying there are other things to work on.
Glass beads are nice for making eyes but can look too round or too large; so, using a pair of diagonal cutters, glass beads are cracked in half. Do this inside a folded paper towel to prevent little pieces of glass from flying across the room, and I prefer the look of beads that have a metal center.
Place the broken glass pieces in a row and find two half beads that look similar in size and shape, then bind them inside a wrapping of either ladies' pantyhose, organza or something that will help make them look more textured, like insect eyes.
For this fly I am using a cloth cover from a bottle of champagne bought for the Christmas holidays. (I am always on the lookout for new materials to experiment with.) So, cheers! It’s finally time to put a hook in the vise and start tying.
The hook is a Tiemco 200RBL Size 6, which has been slightly bent to the side as well as the gape opened up a bit wider. The thread used is white Orvis 6/0, which is easily manageable and strong, allowing for less concern of breakage while tying.
A piece of olive dustpan broom bristle, also from the local hardware store, is tied in behind the hook eye to create a pair of mouth pincers.
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