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How Chinese Frogs are made
8 Jul 2015 08:25 amSince my camera is broken, I'm going to try to use my words to make pictures. ha.
I took apart two different frogs - one that I ordered off the web and arrived from China (black), and one I took off a cheongsam dress (black and green).
The black one was made of single fold satin bias tape and copper wire that looked to be about 22-24 gauge, but was much stiffer than the silver wire I use to make jewelry. The decorative part (flower) was bent into shape and the loop and ball part were completely separate and hand sewn onto the ends of the flower, kind of sandwiched in between the two sides of the bias. The loop and ball did not contain the wire. It was a single length of bias tape, the wire in the fold and the turned-under edges stitched together. The center folds/points of the flower were stitched together to draw them tightly together.
The black and green had similar construction, but used two lengths of satin bias tape - the green was single fold, and the black was simply a strip folded in half with raw edges. They were also glued/starched to be even more stiff. I don't know if the bias tapes were starched and dried, or starched and folded when wet. The green tape only was used to make the ball and loop, and was an extension of the flower, so only one raw edge of the ball/loop was attached to the flower and sandwiched between the bias tape.
I'd be interested in making my own designs - it seems pretty easy.
I took apart two different frogs - one that I ordered off the web and arrived from China (black), and one I took off a cheongsam dress (black and green).
The black one was made of single fold satin bias tape and copper wire that looked to be about 22-24 gauge, but was much stiffer than the silver wire I use to make jewelry. The decorative part (flower) was bent into shape and the loop and ball part were completely separate and hand sewn onto the ends of the flower, kind of sandwiched in between the two sides of the bias. The loop and ball did not contain the wire. It was a single length of bias tape, the wire in the fold and the turned-under edges stitched together. The center folds/points of the flower were stitched together to draw them tightly together.
The black and green had similar construction, but used two lengths of satin bias tape - the green was single fold, and the black was simply a strip folded in half with raw edges. They were also glued/starched to be even more stiff. I don't know if the bias tapes were starched and dried, or starched and folded when wet. The green tape only was used to make the ball and loop, and was an extension of the flower, so only one raw edge of the ball/loop was attached to the flower and sandwiched between the bias tape.
I'd be interested in making my own designs - it seems pretty easy.
