Tag Archives: holographic pvc

Insect Art: Glitter cicada with holographic vinyl!

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3D printer pen jeweled cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020Made with a 3D Printer pen I got from my mom-in-law for Christmas!

I broke out the 3D printing pen last week! It’s basically a glue gun that takes different colors of PLA filament. It came with fifteen colors. I used seven colors, darker ones on the bottom and going brighter towards the top layers.


This is the naked filament armature.

Then I took a ratty brush and painted the whole thing with blue-violet interference paint. You can see other posts about acrylic interference paint, which I started using in 1990, here.

3D printer pen cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020 rt wing detailThe last batch of art supplies I ordered from the UK, back in the other world that was February, was glitter, holographic, iridescent and metallic vinyls and pvcs.

I’ve been feeling a thirst to work with transparent and tinted clear materials the past month.My assortment of sparkly sheets arrived the second week of March. I cut small triangles of the holo pvc, applied glue to the edges, then attached them to the back of the filament “struts”. I filled in other spaces with scraps of textured lavender iridescent vinyl, some dark blue glitter vinyl I had left from my mermaid corset project in 2012, metallic blue pvc, and transparent blue glitter “jelly” vinyl.

Glitter vinyl cicada by Suzanne Forbes March 20 2020“Jelly” vinyl is a thick, tinted vinyl, often full of glitter, foil stars, etc.

I covered most of the back with some actual trash – scraps of clear plastic cut from packaging, metallic blue plastic foil from the cat food packets. The glue I’m using is UHU Alleskleber in the Flinke Flasche (“nimble bottle”), which has solvents; in the US I’d use Gem-Tac. I left some areas open, and drizzled glue across others, then added decorations.

3D printer pen cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020 front windowI used microbeads, Swarovski crystals, opalescent rhinestones, iridescent rhinestones, glass pearls, clear rainbow micropearls, and glitter to decorate it.

3D printer pen cicada by Suzanne Forbes Mar 21 2020 libraryIt took about a week to finish all the decorating.

I find working with sparkly materials like this to be a kind of ASMR, deeply soothing and meditative.

During this really unprecedented time, when my husband and I are safe but I am so acutely aware of the danger to so many others, I don’t know what to do but make pretty.

I hope you enjoy the sparkle!

Fairy Unicorn Rainbow Headband, what silliness!

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Holographic glitter vinyl pvc unicorn fairy headdress by Suzanne Forbes February 2020I made this ridiculous rainbow glitter iridescent PVC headpiece so impulsively!

I saw the iridescent headband lying on a shelf in the bathroom just after I’d been admiring some holographic vinyl fetishwear on Instagram. I remembered I had some small sheets of glitter and holographic pvc I ordered as samples in my “sparkle” drawer. I grabbed those out, turned on the glue gun, and started cutting shapes out of the pvc without any pattern, plan or design whatsoever.

Holographic glitter vinyl pvc unicorn fairy headdress by Suzanne Forbes February 2020I had a vague idea I could fold or pleat the vinyl to make fans, and it turned out that was possible.

Holographic glitter vinyl pvc unicorn fairy headdress by Suzanne Forbes February 2020Intriguingly, the pvc could also be manipulated to create curving dimples around the folds. I made some fans and then poked a hole through their bases so I could use wire to secure the pleats as well as create an attachment.

I used my Tack Life mini-dremel to drill three holes in the headband, ran wires through the holes in the plastic icicles, and wired them on, then glue-gunned them stable.

Then I added the fans around them, using their wires and then the glue gun.

It actually worked!

After one has been making stuff for long enough, an invisible DOS of How to Make Stuff just runs in the brain.

I tried to take photos but I am so bad at that, so I made a bad drawing of how I did it!

Vinyl fan how to by Suzanne Forbes Feb 24 2020I was moving so fast I just grabbed a used emery board off the desk top to make a stem or handle for the bigger fans.

I snapped it in half and stuck it between the pleats, then wire wrapped it, which facilitated attaching the pleats to the headband. I used the gluegun almost exclusively for construction, which is bad because glue gun glue is heavy! But I love how fast it is.

Holographic glitter vinyl pvc unicorn fairy headdress by Suzanne Forbes February 2020 detailI did use my UHU alleskleber to attach miniature braid around the edges of each fan, which gave a nice finish.

And I used the Alleskleber to attach the various iridescent and rainbow shift rhinestones. I glittered the silk flowers by swabbing them (literally, rather than using a brush I just grabbed a Q-Tip) with Interference Paint in blue-violet, then dipping them in lavender micro-glitter.

Holographic glitter vinyl pvc unicorn fairy headdress by Suzanne Forbes February 2020 leftThe poufs of glitter tulle and color-shift organza are stuffed with holographic plastic Easter grass I had had since at least the late ’90s.

I can’t believe I finally used it!!! I just secured each stuffed pouf with wire at the bottom to make an enclosed bundle, then gluegunned that on.

All in, this project still took me a good ten-twelve hours. But imagine how long it would have taken if I had thought about it first or made some kind of plan for it! That probably would have added hours! Better to just dive in, for me 🙂