In search of a better butterfly ...

Ever since I started quilling, I've been making butterflies - they look wonderful on cards, especially when used to complement a photograph of flowers.

Over the years, I've tried several different styles.








There's this one, which is lovely - but it's quite time-consuming to make using a quilling board and pins.

Then there is this one:

This:

And even this where I used painted sea-shells to create the wings.

But today I've decided that this is my favourite pattern of all, using two large 'eye' shaped coils, and two 'teardrops'.

Lately I've been experimenting with making multi-coloured wings by gluing several strips together. Here's the result, with a single crimped strip in between two straight ones. I think it's best to separate the strands at the centre of the coil so that all the colours are clearly visible. Butterflies like this don't take long at all to make, but I think they look lovely and the colour permutations are endless. (That's what I love so much about quilling!) What kind of butterflies do you all like to make?