I had recently purchased a dragonfly pendant that I was excited to use on a garter. I was playing around with the placement of the pendant on the lace and I knew I liked it in the middle of the scallop motifs, but part of me wished I had a bunch more to repeat the dragonfly all around. I knew that wasn't feasible for a few reasons, the first one being that just one pendant had a bit of weight. Six or more pendants would have been far too heavy. Another important factor was that the pendant was a limited seasonal item, so I could not get more if I wanted to.
After some time of trying to fuss with this one pendant and growing more impatient with the fact that nothing seemed to "mesh," I asked myself How do I make my own dragonflies? I pulled out some larger crystals that I had to make the heads. I eventually decided on a bright color-shifting blue. Next I played with smaller crystals to form the body, using an earthy green shade. The hardest part was figuring out how to make the wings. I struggled for a bit, and then it was like the idea came from out of nowhere. I would have to cut the wings from another piece of lace. I was so excited by the idea and simultaneously terrified because it meant cutting up a length of lace that could possibly go to waste if I ended up not liking it. Luckily, the risk was worth the reward here. I felt so proud when I finished Odonata (though she was nameless for a while. Read about the name here).
Sometimes you end up really surprising yourself when all is said and done. After Odonata was completed, I looked back at a piece of the champagne-colored lace that became the base of the garter and pondered Wow, I never would have thought I would turn this into a bunch of bugs!